Beyond Bullying: Positive Change for All

Testing a comprehensive targeted intervention to reduce student bullying

Investigators: Caitlin Gray, Donna Cross, Kevin Runions, Rena Vithiatharan, Therese Shaw, Tommy Cordin

Peer bullying is a stubborn social problem. Despite attention to the problem by schools, communities and researchers, bullying continues to be highly prevalent in Australian schools.

Researchers found working with the whole school to address cultures that support bullying has some effect, but further work is needed to develop strategies to prevent these behaviours.

To date, one of the chief challenges has been stopping bullying at the source: the young people who engage in repeated or severe bullying behaviours.

The Beyond Bullying project is trialing an innovative approach known as Motivational Interviewing (MI). Motivational Interviewing is particularly powerful when changing the problem behaviour elicits resistance from the person engaging in this behaviour.

MI has previously been successfully used in counselling and guidance settings to help young people change and resolve problems with alcohol and substance use, eating disorders, gambling problems, and, most importantly, to reduce violent behaviour.

The Beyond Bullying project involved counselling young people who were identified as bullying others with Motivational Interviewing. In addition, the 'Friendly Schools Plus' program was used to provide schools with resources and strategies to prevent and address bullying behaviours and attitudes among all students.

This project tested the pragmatic efficacy of a whole-school bullying prevention program plus a Motivational Interviewing (MI) counselling intervention to reduce the mental health problems experienced high school students who bully others.

This project aimed to provide policy makers and school staff with a framework to reduce bullying among young people.

External collaborators: 

Phillip Slee (Flinders University), Marilyn Campbell (Queensland University of Technology), Ken Resnicow (University of Michigan), Christina Salmivalli (University of Turku), Department of Education WA, Association of Independent Schools Western Australia (AISWA)

Project partners: 

APS College of Counselling Psychologists
APS College of Educational and Developmental Psychologists (CEDP)
Association of Independent Schools WA (AISWA)
Catholic Education WA
Department of Education WA
Department of Health WA
Headspace
Independent School Nurses Association of Western Australia
Middle Years of Schooling Association (MYSA)
Mindmatters
School Chaplaincy Program (WA)
The Independent School Counsellors' Association of WA (ISCA WA)
The School Psychologists' Association of Western Australia Inc (SPAWA)
The Western Australian Association of Teacher Assistants Inc (WAATA)
Youth Focus