Evaluating the effectiveness of school- and cyber-bullying intervention and prevention programmes: Two systematic and meta-analytical reviews

This thesis examines the effectiveness of interventions to reduce school- and cyberbullying in two meta-analytical reviews. Bullying is defined as repetitive and intentional behaviours that involve children and adolescents between whom there is a distinct power imbalance. Cyberbullying is the manifestation of these behaviours through information and communications technologies (e.g., mobile phones, social media, online environments). Evaluations of school-based anti-bullying programmes designed to reduce offline and online bullying were reviewed. The school-bullying meta-analysis included 100 evaluations of anti-bullying programmes and found that overall, interventions to reduce and prevent bullying were effective. Included programmes significantly reduced school-bullying perpetration by approximately 19-20% and school-bullying victimisation by approximately 15-16%. Several intervention components (e.g., whole-school approach, anti-bullying policies, classroom rules, and informal peer involvement) were associated with greater reductions in school-bullying perpetration. Interventions that included informal peer involvement (e.g., group discussion, role play, class exercises) and information for parents (e.g., leaflets or letters) were associated with greater reductions in school-bullying victimisation. The cyberbullying meta-analysis found that interventions significantly reduced cyberbullying perpetration by approximately 10-15% and cyberbullying victimisation by approximately 14%. This thesis also provides support for a new method of assigning weight to primary studies in a meta-analysis, the Multiplicative Variance Adjustment model, and explores many avenues for future research on 'what works' in bullying intervention and prevention.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Gaffney, Hannah

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Ttofi, Maria
• Farrington, David

• bullying
• cyberbullying
• meta-analysis
• what works
• evaluation
• anti-bullying

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/134dc54c-6ca3-4a3e-8810-52de6b418317/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

Author Identifier

0000-0001-9677-0218

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/316597