Session: Preventing Bullying and Aggression: Findings from the Denver Public Schools Trial (Research that Promotes Sustainability and (re)Builds Strengths (January 15 - 18, 2009))

School-based prevention has been heralded as an efficacious and cost-effective way to decrease the prevalence of antisocial behavior among young people. Bolstered by evidence indicating that empirically-based curricula can prevent or delay the onset of problems like drug use or delinquency, many school districts have strengthened their commitment to providing prevention content at all educational levels. Smoking, illicit drug use, delinquency, and health concerns have been frequent targets of school-based prevention efforts.

In recent years, schools have also expressed a strong interest in implementing prevention programs aimed at reducing childhood aggression, bullying, and bully victimization. In the late-1990s a series of school shootings shook the foundation of American public education and forced a re-evaluation of the nature and scope of school-based prevention. Examination of the incidents of school violence revealed that many perpetrators had been victims of bullying or exclusionary peer practices during childhood and early adolescence. These developments, along with the positive outcomes reported in studies of anti-bullying programs in European countries, has fostered considerable interest in anti-bullying programs in many American public school systems.

School-wide interventions, classroom management approaches, and playground aggression reduction strategies have been used with varying success to prevent bullying and aggression among elementary school students. An emerging argument in the prevention literature suggests that social and emotional skills training may be an effective way to reduce bullying behavior and victimization. A victim's ability to respond calmly and assertively to direct and indirect forms of bullying is likely an important factor in moderating or reducing risk for subsequent bully victimization. Thus, it follows that strategies aimed at teaching social and emotional skills may help students regulate their emotions and develop appropriate responses to bullying prompts. The acquisition of social and emotional skills may also have a positive effect on reducing the number of classroom bullying incidents by strengthening social norms against bullying in school. Social and emotional skill training has been associated with reductions in childhood aggression. Interventions that teach social and emotional skills aimed at developing emotionally regulated responses specific to bullying are needed.

Authors in this symposium present findings a group-randomized trial assessing the effects of a skills-based curriculum targeting bullying and bully victimization among elementary school students in a large, urban school district. The Youth Matters program was tested under controlled conditions in 28 public elementary schools. The study employs principles of random assignment, longitudinal data collection, and multivariate modeling to examine the effects of intervention over time. Project results are presented in three papers that assess the main effects of the intervention on bullying and victimization at time 4, examine individual and social characteristics of bullying and victimization, and detail the time-varying relationship of bully victim status with perspective-taking empathy. Implications for school-based bullying prevention programs are offered.