KiVa® Antibullying programme
KiVa® is an antibullying program developed at the University of Turku with the funding from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
KiVa program aims to prevent bullying from happening in the first place and to provide clear guidelines to school personnel on what to do when there is an actual bullying case at the school. Creating an anti-bullying culture requires the commitment of the entire school community. KiVa is a whole-school program targeted at students between 6 and 16 years old.
The KiVa program was launched for national use in 2009 and since then the uptake of the program has been remarkable. Currently 41% of all schools providing comprehensive education in Finland are implementing the program.
KiVa is evidence-based
The program is evidence-based which means that the effectiveness of KiVa has been proven scientifically. Professor Christina Salmivalli and her group of researchers at the University of Turku have done pioneering research on bullying since the early 1990s. The work has received recognition both in Finland (Finnish Prize for Science 2017) and internationally (European Crime Prevention Award 2009; Social Policy Award for Best Article 2012/Social for Research on Adolescence, USA). The research is still on-going, continually producing new data to develop more effective prevention and intervention in bullying.
Strong evidence for the effectiveness of KiVa
The effectiveness of KiVa has been studied between 2006 and 2009 using a randomized control trial (RCT) setup with over 30.000 children and adolescents. Since the national launch in 2009, data have been collected from KiVa schools, from both student and staff with anonymous surveys, showing a steady decrease of bullying and victimization.
The effects of the KiVa antibullying program have been evaluated and proved in numerous studies also outside of Finland, for example, in the Netherlands, Chile, Italy, New Zealand and Estonia.
KiVa does not only decrease bullying, it also improves the students´ psychosocial well-being, school liking and motivation to learn! In meta-analyses, it has been repeatedly identified as one of the most effective antibullying programs in the world.
Implementing KiVa
KiVa lessons, delivered by school teachers and systematically held throughout the year, are at the core of prevention. With the lessons, the program aims to influence the group norms and how children and young people act when they witness bullying. KiVa also provides material for parents, that aids to facilitate the communication between the school and families. Everyone’s input is needed to ensure that every child and adolescent’s right for a safe learning environment is fulfilled!
Intervention on the other hand is targeted at children involved in bullying, either as the bully, bullied child or bystander. KiVa provides clear, evidence-based guidelines to intervene in bullying situations.
The third component of the program is continuous monitoring, conducted in the form of annual anonymous online surveys and feedback reports. Monitoring allows the school personnel to follow the changes in school climate year after year and see the effects of the KiVa actions. Additionally, the monitoring allows the school to see what is in need of improvement and where the schools have succeeded in.
In Finland, over 800 schools are implementing KiVa and the program is also available in over 20 other countries. Daily, 780.000 students have access to KiVa around the world.