Large trial in United Kingdom indicates: KiVa antibullying programme effectively reduces bullying in primary schools

The largest trial of its kind in the United Kingdom has shown how a low-cost, structured, anti-bullying programme KiVa can improve social dynamics in primary schools and reduce victimisation. Judy Hutchings identifies as KiVa’s strength its way of targeting the whole school and stripping bullies of the social reward.

The KiVa programme is already in use in 25 countries outside Finland. Previously it has been studied using a randomised experimental control design in Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, Chile and Estonia. In all studies, KiVa was found to be an effective way to reduce bullying.

In the United Kingdom the trial lasted one year. KiVa programme was implemented in over 100 primary schools in England and Wales, involving over 11,000 students. It significantly reduced incidents of bullying and was equally effective across socio-economically diverse schools and from small rural schools to large, urban ones.

The KiVa programme focuses on the behaviour of all children and emphasises the role that bystanders can play. Children in schools that implemented the programme were less likely to report being bullied, compared to schools using standard procedures. The schools undertaking KiVa also reported that their children were more empathetic towards victims and that children’s problems with their peers were reduced.

Economic analyses by public health economists from Bangor University found that KiVa is also a low-cost intervention, which is particularly important given budget restrictions in schools.

Professor Judy Hutchings, from the Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention at Bangor University, said: “Bullying in childhood is one of the biggest risk factors for later mental health problems in childhood, adolescence and beyond. Unfortunately, it is widespread in UK schools; and while all schools are required to have a bullying policy, it’s rarely evidence-based. The KiVa ‘whole school’ approach has had really significant effects on bullying in other countries because it focuses on everyone’s behaviour, and removes the social rewards usually gained by the perpetrators.”

The Finnish Kiusaamista Vastaan (“Against Bullying”), or KiVa, programme, is based on research that demonstrates that bystanders – children who are present, but not directly involved in bullying incidents – have a major role to play in defending the victim, making bullying less socially acceptable, and so reducing the motivation of bullies.

Largest randomised controlled KiVa-trial outside Finland

The research is the largest randomised controlled trial to date of the KiVa programme outside Finland, involving 118 schools across England and Wales.

Half the schools adopted Kiva and half continued standard practice. Data were obtained from 11,111 pupils who filled in surveys about bullying, and from teacher-reported pupil behavior questionnaires on 11,571 pupils, both before and after the trial.

The trial ran for a full academic year. However, KiVa is designed to be embedded into ongoing school practice and many schools involved in the trial are continuing to use the programme.

The schools on the KiVa arm of the trial set up fortnightly lessons for pupils which focused on recognising and responding to bullying and helping to support victims. There were also whole-school assemblies on bullying, poster campaigns and information for parents. Teachers supervising breaktimes wore high-visibility vests. For every identified bullying incident, staff followed KiVa’s recommended actions. Rather than the traditional response of blame and punishment for the bully, the schools had individual discussions with the children involved and made sure that the bullying pupil committed to clear actions to support the victim.

Professor: Substantial impact for individuals and cumulatively on the whole school

The results from the UK trial of 13% reduction in bullying are less compelling than those from earlier studies in other European countries.

However, the UK trial took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, which involved major classroom disruption for pupils and considerably higher levels of absenteeism, and researchers believe this may have affected the results.

– Pandemic started almost as soon as the study was launched, and, for example, the training of teachers had to be unexpectedly organised digitally. Even so, pupils’ experiences of being bullied ended up being lower in the KiVa schools than in the control schools, the creator of the KiVa programme, professor Christina Salmivalli from the University of Turku tells.

She points out the study has very specific methodological merits, including the fact that the author of the statistical analyses was ‘blind’ to which schools were using KiVa and which were not.

Lucy Bowes, Professor of Psychopathology at the University of Oxford, said: “Being bullied may have devastating consequences for children and young people, including increasing the risk of mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, as well as poor school outcomes. This means that any improvement is worthwhile and even small percentage changes can have a substantial impact for those individual children and will cumulatively improve the situation in the school over time. The Finnish data show year-on-year improvements over seven years for schools that continue with the programme. Addressing bullying in schools is a major public health concern, and evaluating anti-bullying programmes used in our schools is vital.”

The project was led overall by Bangor University working with the Universities of Exeter, Oxford, Warwick, and Birmingham and the trial itself was managed by the Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University. The Children’s Early Intervention Trust charity, that has the UK KiVa dissemination license, organised intervention costs, training schools and implementation. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

‘The effects and costs of an anti-bullying programme (KiVa) in UK primary schools: a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial’ is published in Psychological Medicine.