Designing the Integrated Anti-Bullying Program and Determining Its Effectiveness in Reducing Bullying Behaviors of Middle School Students

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

4 Professor, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

10.22034/jmpr.2024.18590

Abstract

The aim of this study was to designing the integrated anti-bullying program and determining of its effectiveness in reducing bullying behaviors of male students in Sanandaj. The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and control group. For this, two middle school were selected first by purposive sampling method and then randomly placed one as the experimental and the other as the control group. Then by studing and integrating anti-bullying programs designed in the leading countries in this field and other useful resources a comprehensive program is designed with specific ssesions for each group of school staff, teachers, students and parents. In the practical phase, first the olweus bullying questionnaire (1996), was conducted to all students as a pre-test at both schools. Then, the anti-bullying program in the experimental school was taught separately for each of the groups, and at the end, the post-test was performed again in both the experimental and control schools. Analyzing data with univariate and multivariate covariance showed the effectiveness of a integrated anti-bullying program in reducing bullying behaviors of students in the experimental group(P<0/05). However, this intervention was more effective in reducing verbal and physical forms of bullying compared to emotional bullying. Considering the prevalence of bullying in Iranian schools and according to the findings of the present study, it is suggested that the implementation of such comprehensive anti-bullying programs in schools at different levels be considered by education officials.

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