Effects of a Group-Randomized Trial of the Youth Matters Curriculum on Bullying and Victimization in Elementary School Students

Purpose: In this paper we report outcomes from a group-randomized trial of a prevention curriculum aimed at preventing and reducing bullying and other aggressive behaviors among elementary students in the Denver, Colorado school system. Fourteen elementary schools in Denver were randomly assigned to receive selected modules of Youth Matters, a skills-training curriculum that targets bullying and aggression. Fourteen comparable schools were randomly assigned to a no-treatment control group. Intervention occurred with 603 students in 39 experimental-group classrooms. The estimation sample for the analyses presented in this paper consists of 456 control students and 670 experimental students who were consented at baseline and have at least one data point. Compared to the control group, the experimental group had a slightly, though not significantly, higher proportion of Latino students (64% vs. 49%) and a slightly lower proportion of Anglo (9% vs. 11%) and African American (14% vs. 17%) students. Youth Matters is based on the social development model and incorporates knowledge of risk and protective factors associated with the onset of aggression and other antisocial behaviors in lesson design. Curriculum content teaches students cognitive, behavioral, and social skills necessary to recognize, avoid, and respond to bullying situations in school. The intervention was taught by three curriculum specialists in the 14 experimental schools.

Methods: Longitudinal data on self-report measures of bullying behavior were obtained from students over four time points to assess the effects of the intervention on the rate of change in study outcomes. Primary outcomes included a measure of bullying behavior from the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. A bullying victimization scale and attitudes toward bullying scale also were examined as primary outcomes. Risk and protective factors for involvement in aggressive behavior including measures of school commitment, classroom friction, family attachment, peer influence, and antisocial attitudes were evaluated. Cross-classified linear growth models were fitted to four waves of data collected over two years to test the effect of the Youth Matters intervention on the rate of change in self-reported bullying behaviors, bully victimization, and other outcomes.

Results: In a continuous outcome growth model, bully victim scales declined over the course of the study and the rate of decline in victimization was significantly higher in experimental schools relative to control schools. Results from linear growth models indicated that participation in the Youth Matters curriculum was associated with a 5% decline in self-reported bully victimization per semester. Over the course of three semesters this intervention effect translates into a 20% decline in the mean bully victim score in the average Youth Matters school compared to only 8% in the average control group school.

Implications for Practice: Findings from the Youth Matters trial point to the importance of research aimed at understanding and ameliorating bullying in urban public school systems. Our findings suggest that increasing skills in recognizing and resisting bullying behaviors reduces bullying victimization among fourth and fifth grade students. Implications of study results for school-based prevention are identified and discussed.