Do Current Anti-bullying Programs Work?
Recently, two studies (1, 2) reviewed the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs. Smith and colleagues synthesized the results of 14 evaluation studies of whole-school anti-bullying programs, examining rates of victimization and bullying reported by children. The results indicated that only one program yielded outcomes that were consistently positive. The remaining programs that were evaluated yielded little or no improvement. Similarly, Vreeman and Carroll (2) reviewed the outcomes of 26 programs (some of which were also reviewed by Smith et al. (1)). Only three of these programs yielded consistent reductions in bullying and victimization, eight yielded some modest positive outcomes, and ten yielded no positive results at all. These reviews underscore several important points that should be of concern to educators, parents, and researchers alike. The first is that there has been very little research on anti-bullying programs generally, and more evaluation studies are urgently needed.
