Program Profile: KiVa Antibullying Program

This school-based program delivered to elementary school students to reduce bullying and victimization was designed for national use in the Finnish comprehensive schools. This program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions for self-reported bullying and victimization and peer-reported victimization for KiVa schools compared with control schools; however, there were no significant differences between treatment and comparison schools on peer-reported bullying.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes at least one high-quality randomized controlled trial.

Program Goals

The KiVa Antibullying Program is a school-based program delivered to all students in grades One, Four, and Seven. It was designed for national use in the Finnish comprehensive schools. Its goal is to reduce school bullying and victimization. The central aims of the program are to:

• Raise awareness of the role that a group plays in maintaining bullying
• Increase empathy toward victims
• Promote strategies to support the victim and to support children’s self-efficacy to use those strategies
• Increase children’s skills in coping when they are victimized

Program Components

The program is a whole-school intervention, meaning that it uses a multilayered approach to address individual-, classroom-, and school-level factors. The curriculum consists of 10 lessons that are delivered over 20 hours by classroom teachers. The students engage in discussions, group work, and role-playing exercises. They also watch short films about bullying. Each lesson is constructed around a central theme, and one rule is associated with that theme; after the lesson is delivered, the class adopts that rule as a class rule. At the end of the year, all the rules are combined into a contract, which all students then sign.

A program manual provides guidelines to the teachers on how much time should be devoted to each theme. Schools have the flexibility to decide how to organize the school year around the themes. Manuals and curricula are developmentally targeted, with versions available for grades 1–3, 4–6, and 7–9.

For primary school children, an antibullying computer game has been developed that students can play during and between the KiVa lessons. For secondary schools students, a virtual learning environment, “KiVa Street,” has been developed; on KiVa Street, students can access information about bullying from a “library,” or they can go to the “movie theater” to watch short films about bullying.

The program actively engages the school and parents. For recess, special vests are given to the playground helpers to enhance their visibility and remind students that the school takes bullying seriously. Materials are also posted around the school that promote antibullying messages. A PowerPoint presentation has been developed that schools can use to introduce the program to school staff and parents, and parents receive a guide that includes information about and advice on dealing with bullying.

In addition to prevention messages, teams are in place to deal with identified bullying cases. The three-person team meets with the classroom teacher to discuss the identified case. Then one- or two-team members meet with the victim (or victims) and the bully in a series of sessions. The manual and training provide guidance on how to conduct these discussions.

Program Theory

The developers of KiVa used social-cognitive theory as a framework for understanding social behavior. They also drew on research that suggests that bullying behavior stems from the pursuit of high status within a peer group and that the maintenance of bullying depends on group behavior. KiVa predicts that changes in group behaviors can reduce bullying by reducing the rewards of bullying (Kärnä and colleagues 2011a).

Study 1

Kärnä and colleagues (2011a) used a randomized control trial to assess the effectiveness of the KiVa Antibullying Program in reducing school bullying and victimization in grades Four–Six. Seventy-eight Finnish schools participated in the study and were randomly assigned either to the treatment group (39 schools, 4,207 students) or the control group (39 schools, 4,030 students). The sample was evenly divided between boys and girls (50.1 percent girls), and most were most native Finns (only 2.4 percent were immigrants). Data was collected at three time points—in May 2007 (T1), December 2007/January 2008 (T2), and May 2008 (T3)—through Web-based questionnaires. Control and treatment participants did not differ statistically on criterion variables.

Primary outcomes included self-reported and peer-reported bullying and victimization. Secondary outcomes included defending victims, assisting/reinforcing bullies, antibullying attitudes, empathy toward victims, self-efficacy for defending, and student well-being. Self-reported bullying/victimization were measured using the revised Olweus’ Bully/Victim questionnaire. Secondary outcomes were measured using the Participant Role Questionnaire, the Provictim scale (for antibullying attitudes), an empathy scale (to evaluate empathy toward victims), the newly developed Self-Efficacy for Defending Scale, and items developed by the Finnish National Board of Education (for well-being at school).

Analyses were conducted using multilevel techniques to account for effects at individual, classroom, and school levels. Specifically, while analyses assessed change in individual students, the analyses accounted for clustering effects of classrooms, and the results were presented in terms of the impact of being in KiVa schools or the control schools. The program design treated the entire school as the “subject,” opting for many programming features that operated on the school climate.

Study 2

Kärnä and colleagues (2011b) used a quasi-experimental design and a cohort-longitudinal design with adjacent cohorts to evaluate program effects of the KiVa Antibullying Program in reducing school bullying and victimization in grades 1–9 in 2008. The target sample of schools comprised 1,450 students, after 2 years of recruitment. In the end, 888 schools remained in the study, with pretest and posttest measurements included in the analyses.

Each school had an average of 226 students, and 13 classrooms with 18 students per classroom. There was an equal ratio of boys (50 percent) to girls (49 percent), and students were mostly native Finns. Data was collected at two time points— August 2009 (T1), and May 2010/2011 (T2). The study authors used a web-based questionnaire that asked about bullying others, being bullied, reporting bullying, attitudes related to bullying, and classroom and school atmosphere.

Primary outcomes included self-reported victimization and self-reported bullying. Self-reported bullying/victimization were measured using the revised Olweus Bully/Victim questionnaire. Student response rates were lower at posttest than at pretest. It is possible that bullies and bully victims dropped out at higher rates, which would confound results. The authors did address this and conducted sensitivity analyses by imputing higher-outcome bullying scores for the missing cases.

KiVa has developed comprehensive and detailed program manuals, consisting of a general implementation manual and three grade-specific manuals that include the curricula for grades 1, 4, and 7. The KiVa website also has resources for virtual training and provides access to Web-based questionnaires, the curricula, and the computer game for students: http://www.kivaprogram.net/

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Bullying Prevention Programs

The practice includes programs designed to reduce bullying perpetration and victimization and to increase positive bystander behavior in bullying situations. The practice is rated Effective for reducing bullying perpetration (e.g., overall and physical), reducing bullying victimization (e.g., overall and relational), and increasing positive bystander behavior. The practice is rated No Effects for increasing bystander empathy for bullying victims and reducing verbal bullying victimization.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

	Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Bullying
	Victimization - Overall bullying victimization
	Victimization - Relational bullying victimization
	Victimization - Physical bullying victimization
	Victimization - Bystander intervention
	Mental Health & Behavioral Health - Empathy for the victim
	Victimization - Verbal bullying victimization

Cyberbullying Prevention and Intervention Programs

This practice comprises intervention and prevention programs that are designed to reduce or prevent negative online behaviors among school-aged children ages 9 to 19. Programs include individual-level, multi-level systemic, and universal or whole-school approaches. This practice is rated Effective for reducing cyberbullying perpetration and victimization.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

	Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Bullying
	Victimization - Cyberbullying victimization

Parent-Involved Antibullying Programs for Youth

This practice includes programs that offer a parent-involved component to reduce bullying perpetration and victimization. This practice is rated Promising for reducing bullying victimization and perpetration, reducing negative parenting, and improving positive parenting skills but is rated No Effects for reducing youth depression.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

	Victimization - Bullying victimization
	Family Functioning - Parenting skills
	Family Functioning - Negative parenting skills
	Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Bullying
	Mental Health & Behavioral Health - Internalizing behavior

School-Based Cyberbullying Prevention Programs

This practice aims to decrease cyberbullying perpetration and victimization and promote cyber-bystander behaviors among students in kindergarten through grade 12. This practice is rated Promising for reducing cyberbullying perpetration and victimization and is rated Promising for reducing bullying perpetration and victimization. This practice is rated No Effects for promoting cyber-bystander behaviors.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

	Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Cyberbullying perpetration
	Victimization - Cyberbullying victimization
	Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Perpetration
	Victimization - Bullying victimization
	Victimization - Cyber-bystander behavior

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?