Christina Salmivalli University of Turku, Finland

1. Evidence-based prevention of bullying: How and why does the KiVa antibullying program work? Christina Salmivalli University of Turku, Finland

2. Pupils NOT feeling safe at school, %Finland, 2009

3. Bullying • Systematic aggressive behavior against a person who finds it difficult to defend him/herself against the perpetrator(s) • Repeated attacks and power differential are central features

4. Short-term consequences of bullying • Concurrently: Children bullied by their peers are more anxious, depressed, and withdrawn, have a lower self-esteem, like school less, have more sleep problems and more self-harming thoughts and behaviors than their peers • Evidence that being bullied caused the adverse outcomes? • as victimization decreases, adverse effects are reduced

5. Williford, Boulton, Noland, Little, Kärnä & Salmivalli: Effects of the KiVa antibullying program on adolescents’ depression, anxiety, and perception of peers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2011. Changes in victimization predict subsequent changes in one’s peer perceptions, depression levels, and anxiety levels

6. Long-term consequences of bullying Lereya, Coepland, Castello & Wolke: Adult mental health consequences of peer bullying and maltreatment in childhood: two cohorts of longitudinal studies. Lancet Psychiatry, 2015. Being bullied by peers in childhood has similar and in some cases even worse long-term adverse effects on young adults’ mental health than being maltreated by parents

7. Ultimate tragedies – school massacres, youth suicides • rare, but often associated with prolonged victimization • Everyday suffering of millions of children and youth around the world • Childhood victimization is a major risk factor for later depression (Ttofi et al., 2011) • Adverse developmental trajectories of perpetrators of bullying

8. The need for evidence-based prevention of bullying is obvious and urgent • In Finland, the ”big step” was taken in 2006 • The Ministry of Education and Culture decided to fund the development of a bullying prevention program to be implemented widely in Finnish schools KiVa

9. Participant roles in bullying (Salmivalli et al., 1996) Researchbackground of KiVa assistants of the bully 7% 24% 8% outsiders bully 12% 17% reinforcers of the bully defenders of the victim 20% 9

10. The responses of peer bystanders matter • Individual effects: short term • the defended victims are better adjusted than the undefended ones (Sainio, Veenstra, Huitsing, & Salmivalli, 2010) • Individual effects: long term • the most negative memory related to bullying is often ”no-one cared” (Teräsahjo & Salmivalli, 2000)

11. The responses of peer bystanders matter • Classroom level: • In classrooms where students tend to reinforce the bully, rather than support the bullied classmates • Bullying occurs more frequently (Salmivalli, Voeten & Poskiparta, 2011) • Vulnerabe children (e.g., socially anxious ones) are more likely to end up as targets of bullying (Kärnä, Voeten, Poskiparta, & Salmivalli, 2010)

12. In order to reduce bullying... • We do not necessarily need to change the victims, making them ”less vulnerable” • Influencing the behavior of bystanders can reduce the rewards gained by the bullies and consequently, their motivation to bully in the first place • However, the victims need to feel that they are heard and helped by the adults at school • The bullies need to be confronted for their unacceptable behavior UNIVERSAL

13. In order to reduce bullying... • We do not necessarily need to change the victims, making them ”less vulnerable” • Influencing the behavior of bystanders can reduce the rewards gained by the bullies and consequently, their motivation to bully in the first place • However, the victims need to feel that they are heard and helped by the adults at school • The bullies need to be confronted for their unacceptable behavior INDICATED

14. KiVa program • Special characteristics: • Both universal and indicated actions • An exceptionally large amount of materials & concrete tools (not merely a ”philosophy”) • Utilizing virtual learning environments • Influencing the whole group • KiVa is more systematic than most existing anti-bullying programs • Strong evidence of effectiveness

15. KiVa™ universal and indicated actions Parent materials Online antibullying games Student lessons and materials involved (teacher manuals, short films) Visible vests for persons supervising recess time Online surveys with feedback of progress Monitoring implementation and long-term effects KiVa™ team Clear guidelines for tackling bullying

16. Teacher’s manuals

17. Teacher’s manual – student lessons

18. Activities included in student lessons • Creating awareness of how the group might maintain and fuel bullying • Providing safe strategies to support victimized peers

19. Emotion cards

20. Learning by doing…

21. KiVa online games: closely connected to student lessons

22. Online games I CAN / Unit 2

23. “Virtual mailbox” in the online games

24. Indicated actions: Tackling the cases of bullying KiVa team

25. Indicated actions- Tackling the cases coming to attention • Individual discussions with the victim and with the bullying children KIVA TEAM • + utilizing prosocial, high-status peers • ”your help is needed”CLASSROOM TEACHER • setting standards for others • making the victim feel better • protecting the victimized child from further attacks

26. Screening (Form 1) • the adult who is the first to know about the case Discussion with the victim (Form 2) • one team member Individual discussions with the bullies (Form 3) • two team members Group discussion with the bullies(Form 4) Follow-up discussion with the victim (Form 5) Follow-up group discussion (Form 6)

27. Finnish evaluation of KiVa (2007-2008) • SCREENING: An average of 9.24 cases/school, range 1-55. • 60.5% of these cases were directed to KiVa team (an average of 5.6 cases/school) • Other cases were typically • Fight or argument 59% • Misunderstanding 11% • Single aggressive incident 30%

28. Parents’ involvement

29. Monitoring tool:Annual school-based feedback

30. Evidence of effectiveness

31. Evidence of effectiveness In Finland • Randomized controlled trial 2007-2009 • 117 intervention and 117 control schools • >30,000 students (grades 1–9, 7–15 year old) • First year of nationwide implementation (2009-2010) • 880 Finnish schools (cohort longitudinal design) • ~150,000 students (grades 1–9) • Monitoring based on annual survey (2009–

32. KiVa… • influenced multiple forms of victimization, including verbal, physical, and cyberbullying Salmivalli et al. (2011)

33. Changes in being bullied by different forms during one school year: RCT, grades 4 to 6

34. KiVa… • decreased reinforcing and assisting the bully • Influenced children´s antibullying attitudes, efficacy, and effort to defend the victims • Increased empathy toward victimized Kärnä et al. (2010; 2012)

35. KiVa also Influenced… • children’s perceptions on their teachers’ attitudes and how well the teacher is able to do to reduce bullying • teachers self-evaluated competence to tackle bullying, and teacher perceptions of bullying. (Ahtola et al. 2012; Veenstra et al.,2014)

36. How does KiVa work? • ”Theory of change” behind KiVa: The program makes bullying behavior less rewarding for the perpetrators by changing bystander responses and showing that adults are willing and able to take action against bullying • Putting the theory into test…

37. KiVa: Mechanisms of changeSaarento et al., 2015 STUDENT LEVEL Antibullying attitudes increase Perceptions of peers’ bystander behaviors and teacher attitudes toward bullying change Bullying decreases • KiVabegins • Universal actions • Indicatedactions Collective perceptions of teacher attitudes toward bullying change Bullying decreases CLASSROOM LEVEL 37

38. Additionally KiVa… • reduced students’anxiety and depression and had a positive impact on their perceptions of peer climate (Williford et al, 2011) • had positive effects on school liking and academic motivation (Salmivalli, Garandeau & Veenstra, 2012)

39. KiVa Indicated actions are effective • The proportion of cases handled by the school team in which bullying… • Stopped completely 78.2% • Decreased 19.5% • Remained the same 2.0% • Increased 0.3% Garandeau et al. (2014). Tackling acute cases of bullying: Comparison of two methods in the context of the KiVa antibullying program

40. Important: • The quality of implementation is associated with the outcomes obtained (Haataja et al., 2014). • Principal support is crucial for sustainable implementation (Ahtola et al., 2012) • KiVa does not make anything by itself! It is a tool to be used

41. Long-term effects: Proportion of students who have been bullied / who are bullying others repeatedly in KiVa schools, 2009-2015

42. Proportion of students being bullied repeatedly, Finnish KiVa schools, 2009-2015

43. Proportion of students bullying others repeatedly, Finnish KiVa schools, 2009-2015

44. NOT feeling safe at school, %

45. Conclusions • Being bullied by peers in childhood has serious adverse effects on learning, development and mental health • Bullying should be at the forefront as a major public health concern • Evidence-based practices can lead to substantial change in the lives of numerous children and youth • needs effort and commitment!

46. KiVa: Visions for the future • Creating an international KiVa community • International partners, certified KiVa trainers • International KiVa conference days • Development of the materials • Finding new ways to support the schools

47. 2009 Roll-out in Finland: 1465 schools • 2010 + 817 Finnish schools • 2011 + 290 Finnish schools + Åland Island • 2012 + 31 Finnish schools • Evaluation studies in the Netherlands and in Delaware begin • Pilots in Wales, Luxembourg, Sweden • 2013 + 17 Finnish schools • Evaluation studies in Estonia, Italy, Wales begin • A small pilot in Japan • 2014 The 1st training for international trainers • Implementation in Belgium, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, The European School Network • 2015 The 2nd training for international trainers • Implementation in Sweden • 2016 The 3rd training for international trainers • Evaluation study in Chile begins • Implementation in Hungary

48. www.kivaprogram.net