Effects of an intervention to prevent the bullying in first-grade secondary schools of Palermo, Italy: the BIAS study

Abstract

Background Bullying is one of the most common expressions of violence in the peer context during school years. This study investigates the prevalence of bullying and the short-term effects on students’ bullying perceptions of a preventive intervention conducted among teachers of first-grade secondary schools in Palermo, Sicily (Italy). Methods Between the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 school years, a pre-post intervention study was conducted among nine school institutions, sampled and categorized by neighbourhood socioeconomic index. A questionnaire investigating physical, verbal, and indirect bullying, the role of observers, prosociality, and resiliency in bullying was administered before and after intervention with formative cascade training of the teachers of the selected classes. Three different methods (sentinel questions, the five-question method, the ‘score of seven’ method) were used to detect the baseline level of bullying. Results A total of 402 students participated in the study (72.7% response rate). A decrease in the number of bullying episodes after the intervention was reported by the students in all types of bullying explored (physical, verbal, and indirect bullying, observers, resiliency, and prosociality), with all three methods. In particular, a statistically significant decrease in all the bullying areas investigated (except for resiliency) was reported for students attending schools of an intermediate socioeconomic level. Conclusions Even if many school-based interventions have been implemented to reduce school bullying throughout the world, this is one of the first conducted in Europe and it assesses the effectiveness among students of an anti-bullying intervention tailored for teachers. The encouraging results in reducing the number of bullying episodes together with the low cost in terms of human and economic resources could suggest an extension of this research on a regional/national scale.

Health Literacy and Health Behavior: Associated Factors in Surabaya High School Students, Indonesia

“…As a result, the delivery of health promotion is different among schools, and the contribution of health promotion to students' health literacy and health behavior may be difficult to measure. The future improvement of health promotion and intervention in schools (to a satisfactory level) should be designed using the best practices from previous studies [70,71], and further analysis should conducted on the relationship between HPS, HL, and HB.…”

The P.E.A.C.E. Pack Program in Italian High Schools: An Intervention for Victims of Bullying

“…Indeed, only a few teacher-led interventions, showing contrasting results, have been reported in the literature [ 7 ]. An example of a teacher-based anti-bullying program with promising results was the BIAS (Bullying in Sicilian Schools) study [ 8 ], implemented by the teachers of the first grade of secondary schools, revealing a decrease in the number of bullying episodes among students. In contrast, the SEHER (Strengthening the Evidence base on effective scHool based intErventions for pRomoting adolescent health.)…”

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Bullying Phenomenon Among Pre-Adolescents Attending First-Grade Secondary Schools of Palermo, Italy, and a Comparative Systematic Literature Review.

“…The collection of data in other prevalence studies (such as during the "health behavior in school-aged children" study) was limited to one or two nonspeci c questions and did not analyze the real impact of the phenomenon. The encouraging results obtained in a more accurate evaluation of the bullying prevalence and in the de nition of factors associated with higher bullying episodes could help public health authorities in organizing dedicated interventions in a school context [20,39]. The main limitation of the BIAS study is the small but still representative number of the participants.…”

“…After obtaining written consent from their parents, an anonymous questionnaire was self-administered by the students from December 2017 to February 2018, using an open access web-based platform (Google® Forms) to evaluate the baseline prevalence of bullying from the students' perspective. The questionnaire consisted of an introductive section on socio-demographic data (gender, age, nationality, school institution and class attended), followed by 30 items investigating the six main areas of practical interest and research on bullying: 1) physical bullying, 2) verbal bullying, 3) indirect bullying, 4) observers, 5) resiliency, and 6) prosociality ( ve questions for each area) [19][20].…”