Systematic Review of School-Based Programs to Reduce Bullying and Victimization, 1983-2009 (ICPSR 31703)

Version Date: Jan 24, 2014

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Principal Investigator(s):
David P. Farrington, Cambridge University; Maria M. Ttofi, Cambridge University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR31703.v1

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Summary

The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of school-based anti-bullying programs in reducing school bullying. The following criteria were used for the inclusion of studies in the systematic review: the study described an evaluation of a program designed specifically to reduce school (kindergarten to high school) bullying; bullying was defined as including: physical, verbal, or psychological attack or intimidation that is intended to cause fear, distress, or harm to the victim; and an imbalance of power, with the more powerful child (or children) oppressing less powerful ones; bullying (specifically) was measured using self-report questionnaires, peer ratings, teacher ratings, or observational data; the effectiveness of the program was measured by comparing students who received it (the experimental condition) with a comparison group of students who did not receive it (the control condition). There must have been some control of extraneous variables in the evaluation by (1) randomization, or (2) pre-test measures of bulling, or (3) choosing some kind of comparable control condition; published and unpublished reports of research conducted in developed countries between 1983 and 2009 were included; and it was possible to measure the effect size. Several search strategies were used to identify 89 anti-bully studies meeting the criteria for inclusion in this review: researchers searched for the names of established researchers in the area of bullying prevention; researchers conducted a keyword search of 18 electronic databases; researchers conducted a manual search of 35 journals, either online or in print, from 1983 until the end of May 2009; and researchers sought information from key researchers on bullying and from international colleagues in the Campbell Collaboration. Studies included in the review were coded for the following key features: research design, sample size, publication date, location of the study, average age of the children, and the duration and intensity of the anti-bullying program for both the children and the teachers.

Citation

Farrington, David P., and Ttofi, Maria M. Systematic Review of School-Based Programs to Reduce Bullying and Victimization, 1983-2009. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-01-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR31703.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2007-IJ-CX-0045)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

none

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1983 -- 2009

Date of Collection

2008 -- 2009

Data Collection Notes

  1. These data were collected as part of a systematic review for the Campbell Crime and Justice Coordinating Group (CCJG). Further information about the Campbell Collaboration and the Campbell Crime and Justice Group can be found at the Campbell Collaboration Web site.

  2. Users should be aware that ICPSR transposed and converted the original Microsoft Excel data provided by the principal investigators to SPSS, SAS, and Stata formats for dissemination purposes. The unmodified Original Bully Data (Part 11) and Original Victim Data (Part 12) are available in Microsoft Excel format. ICPSR also created a tab-delimited version of the original Part 11 and Part 12 data for preservation purposes. Given the structure of the original data files, ICPSR converted the Original Bully Data into four parts and converted the Original Victim Data into five parts. Parts 1-4 represent transposed versions of the Original Bully Data in SPSS, SAS, and Stata formats and Parts 5-9 represent transposed versions of the Original Victim Data in SPSS, SAS, and Stata formats. The PDF codebooks being distributed as part of this data collection contain a table that summarizes the relationship between the original Microsoft Excel Bully and Victim Data files and the corresponding SPSS, SAS, and Stata data parts.

  3. ICPSR did not convert all of the original data in Microsoft Excel format into SPSS, SAS, and Stata files. Users should refer to the codebooks being distributed as part of this data collection for specific cell ranges in the original Excel data that were not converted by ICPSR.

  4. The project's report (Farrington and Ttofi, 2009; NCJ 229377) indicates that 89 reports (describing 53 different program evaluations) concerned with bullying prevention were included in this study. Of the 89 reports, only 44 provided data that permitted the calculation of an effect size for bullying or victimization (Part 10). Similarly, the Bully Data filesets and the Victim Data filesets do not include data on all 89 reports that were eligible for inclusion in the study.

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Study Purpose

The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of school-based anti-bullying programs in reducing school bullying.

Study Design

Several search strategies were used to identify 89 anti-bully studies meeting the criteria for inclusion in this review:

  • Researchers started by searching for the names of established researchers in the area of bullying prevention.
  • Researchers then conducted a keyword search of 18 electronic databases. In all of the databases, the key words were used with different combinations.
  • Researchers conducted a manual search of 35 journals, either online or in print, from 1983 until the end of May 2009. For some journals, a hard copy was not available. In this case, researchers tried to obtain an online version of the journal.
  • Researchers sought information from key researchers on bullying and from international colleagues in the Campbell Collaboration. In March 2008, researchers held a meeting with key educational users of the information in Copenhagen. When a study in a language other than English was identified, researchers asked colleagues to provide a brief translation of key features that were needed for the coding schedule.

Sample

The following criteria were used for inclusion of studies in the systematic review:

  • The study described an evaluation of a program designed specifically to reduce school (kindergarten to high school) bullying. Studies of aggression or violence were excluded.
  • Bullying was defined as including: physical, verbal, or psychological attack or intimidation that is intended to cause fear, distress, or harm to the victim; and an imbalance of power, with the more powerful child (or children) oppressing less powerful ones.
  • Bullying (specifically) was measured using self-report questionnaires, peer ratings, teacher ratings, or observational data.
  • The effectiveness of the program was measured by comparing students who received it (the experimental condition) with a comparison group of students who did not receive it (the control condition). There must have been some control of extraneous variables in the evaluation by (1) randomization, or (2) pre-test measures of bulling, or (3) choosing some kind of comparable control condition.
  • Published and unpublished reports of research conducted in developed countries between 1983 and 2009 were included.
  • It was possible to measure the effect size. The main measures of effect size were the odds ratio, based on numbers of bullies/non-bullies (or victims/non-victims), and the standardized mean difference, based on the mean scores on bullying and victimization (being bullied). Where the required information was not presented in reports, researchers tried to obtain it by contacting the authors directly.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

All published and unpublished evaluations of anti-bullying programs from 1983 until May of 2009.

Unit(s) of Observation

study

Data Source

The following databases were searched:

  • Australian Criminology Database (CINCH)
  • Australian Education Index
  • British Education Index
  • Cochran Controlled Trials Register
  • C2-SPECTR (The Campbell Collaboration Social, Psychological, Educational, and Criminological Trials Register)
  • Criminal Justice Abstracts
  • Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE)
  • Dissertation Abstracts
  • Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC)
  • EMBASE
  • Google Scholar
  • Index to Theses Database
  • MEDLINE
  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
  • PsychInfo/Psychlit
  • Sociological Abstracts
  • Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
  • Web of Knowledge

In all databases, the following key words were used with different combinations:

  • bully/bullies/anti-bullying/bully-victims/bullying
  • AND: school
  • AND: intervention/program/outcome/evaluation/effect/prevention/tackling/anti-bullying

The following journals were manually searched by researchers:

  • Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 1983 [vol. 137; 1] until May 2009 [vol. 163; 5]
  • Aggression and Violent Behavior, 1996 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 14; 3]
  • Aggressive Behavior [vol. 9; 1] until 2009 [vol. 35; 3]
  • Australian Journal of Education, 2000 [vol. 44] until 2007 [vol. 51] until 2009 [vol. 53; 1]
  • Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 2001 [vol. 1] until 2008 [vol. 8]
  • British Journal of Educational Psychology, 1983 [vol. 53] until 2009 [vol. 79; 2]
  • Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 1985 [vol. 9] and the following volumes: 12[1+2]; 13[1+2]; 14[2]; 15[1]; 16[1+2]; 17[1+2]; 18 [1+2]; 19[1+2]; 20[1+2]; 21[1+2]; 22[1+2] until 2009 [vol. 30; 1]
  • Child Development, 1983 [vol. 34; 1] until 2009 [vol. 80; 2]
  • Criminal Justice and Behavior, 1983 [vol. 10;1] until 2009 [vol. 36;6]
  • Crisis -- The journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 2001 [vol. 22] until 2009 [vol. 30; 1]
  • Developmental Psychology, 1983 [vol. 19; 1] until 2009 [vol. 30; 1]
  • Educational Psychology, 1983 [vol. 3; 1] until 2009 [vol. 29; 2]
  • Educational Psychology in Practice, 1985 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 25; 1]
  • Educational Psychology Review, 1989 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 21; 1]
  • Educational Research, 1983 [vol. 25] until 2009 [vol. 51; 1]
  • International Journal on Violence and Schools, January 2006 until 2008 [vol. 5-7]
  • Intervention in School and Clinic, 1983 [vol. 18; 3] until 2009 [vol. 44; 5]
  • Journal of Educational Psychology, 1983 [vol. 75; 1] until 2009 [ vol. 101; 2]
  • Journal of Emotional Abuse, 1997 [vol. 1; 1] until 2008 [vol. 8; 4]
  • Journal of Experimental Criminology, 2005 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 5; 2]
  • Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1986 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 24; 6]
  • Journal of School Health, 2005 [vol. 75; 1] until 2009 [vol. 79; 6]
  • Journal of School Violence, 2001 [vol. 1; 1] until 2009 [vol. 8; 2]
  • Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1983 [vol. 12; 1] until 2009 [vol. 38; 5]
  • Justice Quarterly, 1986 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 26; 2]
  • Pastoral Care in Education, 1983 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 15; 3]
  • Psychology, Crime and Law, 1994 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 15; 3]
  • Psychology in the Schools, 1983 [vol. 20] until 2009 [vol. 46; 5]
  • Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 1983 [vol. 24; 1] until 2009 [vol. 50; 2]
  • School Psychology International, 1983 [vol. 4] until 2008 [vol. 29; 1] until 2009 [vol. 30; 2]
  • School Psychology Review, 1983 [vol. 12; 1] until 2008 [vol. 37; 1]
  • Studies in Educational Evaluation, 1983 [vol. 9] until 2009 [vol. 35; 1]
  • Swiss Journal of Psychology, 1999 [vol. 58; 1] until 2009 [vol. 68; 1]
  • Victims and Offenders, 2006 [vol. 1] until 2009 [vol. 4; 2]
  • Violence and Victims, 1986 [vol. 1; 1] until 2009 [vol. 24; 2]

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Studies included in the review were coded for the following key features:

  • Research design
  • Sample size
  • Publication date
  • Average age of the children
  • Location of the study
  • Outcome measure
  • Duration of the program for children
  • Intensity of the program for children
  • Duration of the program for teachers
  • Intensity of the program for teachers

Presence of Common Scales

none

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Original Release Date

2014-01-24

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Farrington, David P., and Maria M. Ttofi. Systematic Review of School-Based Programs to Reduce Bullying and Victimization, 1983-2009. ICPSR31703-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-01-24. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR31703.v1

2014-01-24 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Standardized missing values.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

none

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.