In response to the high prevalence of bullying victimization, Bell, Raczynski, and Horne (2010) designed a study to examine the potential of the Bully Busters program to prevent and counter bullying behavior. A central belief underlying the program is that bullying and aggression stem from a lack of social skills and can be addressed by raising awareness, disseminating knowledge, and enhancing the ability of teachers to deal with in-school occurrences. This, in turn, can lead to positive changes in the school climate. The current study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a group-based version of Bully Busters that was abbreviated from the typical full version. The study also focused on addressing several questions including whether
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In regards to the way teachers and students perceive their school climate, results were mixed. While teachers reported small declines in the prevalence of bullying, students reported both a decrease in bullying and an increase. These results fail to provide significant support for the hypotheses that TSGs and class activities led by teachers can impact teachers’ or students’ perceptions of risk factors associated with bullying.
This study has several strengths. Such strengths include the size and relative diversity of the student sample. Such a sample is likely to allow for relative generalizability of results. The inclusion of facilitators during the TSGs is also a strongpoint of the study as such individuals could possibly serve as useful resources in helping teachers effectively learn and implement Bully Busters. Also, the utilization of both teachers and students as participants allowed for multiple perspectives on the program’s success as opposed to focusing on the reports of one …show more content…
One limitation involves the fact that different numbers of teachers and students took the pretest and posttest surveys. More teachers took the survey during the posttest whereas fewer students took the survey. Therefore, not everyone who participated actually took the survey which may have undermined the study’s internal as well as external validity. Students who were not present may have influenced the results had they been able to complete the final survey. In addition, the use of surveys may not have provided a completely accurate picture of the actual occurrence of bullying and aggression or the results of the intervention. Trained observers may have enabled a better comparison of the prevalence of bullying before and after the intervention. Similarly, students and teachers may not have taken surveys seriously and consequently could have impacted results by providing responses that weren 't entirely true or well-contemplated. The focus on one middle school located in southeastern U.S. may also limit the generalizability of results to other schools in different
In regards to the way teachers and students perceive their school climate, results were mixed. While teachers reported small declines in the prevalence of bullying, students reported both a decrease in bullying and an increase. These results fail to provide significant support for the hypotheses that TSGs and class activities led by teachers can impact teachers’ or students’ perceptions of risk factors associated with bullying.
This study has several strengths. Such strengths include the size and relative diversity of the student sample. Such a sample is likely to allow for relative generalizability of results. The inclusion of facilitators during the TSGs is also a strongpoint of the study as such individuals could possibly serve as useful resources in helping teachers effectively learn and implement Bully Busters. Also, the utilization of both teachers and students as participants allowed for multiple perspectives on the program’s success as opposed to focusing on the reports of one …show more content…
One limitation involves the fact that different numbers of teachers and students took the pretest and posttest surveys. More teachers took the survey during the posttest whereas fewer students took the survey. Therefore, not everyone who participated actually took the survey which may have undermined the study’s internal as well as external validity. Students who were not present may have influenced the results had they been able to complete the final survey. In addition, the use of surveys may not have provided a completely accurate picture of the actual occurrence of bullying and aggression or the results of the intervention. Trained observers may have enabled a better comparison of the prevalence of bullying before and after the intervention. Similarly, students and teachers may not have taken surveys seriously and consequently could have impacted results by providing responses that weren 't entirely true or well-contemplated. The focus on one middle school located in southeastern U.S. may also limit the generalizability of results to other schools in different