Revisiting the whole-school approach to bullying: Really looking at the whole school

• Published in: School psychology international Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 263 - 284
• Main Authors: Richard, Jacques F., Schneider, Barry H., Mallet, Pascal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-06-2012; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Bullying; Education; Educational Environment; Evaluation Methods; Foreign Countries; France; Hierarchical Linear Modeling; High Schools; Humanities and Social Sciences; Internet; Mathematical models; Meta Analysis; Middle Schools; Prediction; Prevention; Prevention programs; Problem Solving; Psychology; School environment; School Security; Studies; Teacher Student Relationship; Teacher-Student relationships; Teaching Methods; Victims; Victims of Crime; France; student-teacher relationships; school climate; whole-school; bullies; bullying; prevention; victims
• ISSN: 0143-0343; 1461-7374
• DOI: 10.1177/0143034311415906

The whole-school approach to bullying prevention is predicated on the assumption that bullying is a systemic problem, and, by implication, that intervention must be directed at the entire school context rather than just at individual bullies and victims. Unfortunately, recent meta-analyses that have looked at various bullying programs from many countries have revealed that whole-school interventions designed to combat bullying have had limited success in reducing bullying. The purpose of the present study was to establish more clearly the precise aspects of school climate that are linked specifically to the problem of bullying. We used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyse school-level effects in a data set consisting of 18,222 students from across France. For physical and verbal/relational bullying, the final models respectively explain 6% and 16% of the within-school variance, and 48% and 9% of the between-school variance, significant between-school effects, with the climate variables of school security and the quality of student-teacher relationships emerging as the strongest predictors.