Kärnä A, Voeten M, Little TD, Alanen E, Poskiparta E, Salmivalli C. Effectiveness of the KiVa antibullying program: Grades 1–3 and 7–9. J Educ Psychol. 2013;105(2):535.
Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): YOUTH, Adult-led Support/Counseling/Remediation, Peer-led Mentoring/Support Counseling, PARENT/FAMILY, Notification/Information Materials (Online Resources, Information Guide), Presentation/Meeting/Information Session/Event, CLASSROOM, Adult-led Curricular Activities/Training, SCHOOL, Reporting & Response System, Teacher/Staff Training, Media Campaign (Print Materials, Public Address System, Social Media)
Intervention Description: This study investigated the effectiveness of the KiVa Antibullying Program in two samples of students, one from Grades 1-3 (7-9 years old, N = 6,927) and the other from Grades 7-9 (13-15 years old, N = 16, 503).
Intervention Results: Multilevel regression analyses revealed that after 9 months of implementation, the intervention had beneficial effects in Grades 1-3 on self-reported victimization and bullying (odds ratios approximately equal to 1.5), with some differential effects by gender. In Grades 7-9, statistically significant positive results were obtained on 5 of 7 criterion variables, but results often depended on gender and sometimes age. The effects were largest for boys' peer reports: bullying, assisting the bully, and reinforcing the bully (Cohen's ds 0.11-0.19).
Conclusion: Overall, the findings from the present study and from a previous study for Grades 4-6 (Karna, Voeten, Little, Poskiparta, Kaljonen, et al., 2011) indicate that the KiVa program is effective in reducing bullying and victimization in Grades 1-6, but the results are more mixed in Grades 7-9. (Contains 1 figure, 7 tables, and 1 footnote.)
Study Design: Cluster RCT: pretest-posttest
Setting: Finland
Population of Focus: Not specified
Data Source: Not specified
Sample Size: Total (n=16503)
Age Range: 13-15
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