Planning and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Behavioral Intervention on Reducing Physical Bullying and Improving School Bonding in Students: A School-Based Perspective

School bullying has been regarded as a serious concern in schools worldwide. Thus, it is critical for researchers and psychologists to use effective intervention strategies to manage bullying behaviors in the schools. Bullying intervention requires taking a school-based approach in which bullies, peers, and teachers are engaged. The present study aimed to plan and evaluate the effectiveness of school-based behavioral intervention on students bullying behavior and school bonding.

This study was a quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest control group design. The participants were 30 bully students, 15 pro-bully students, and four fifth-grade teachers of governmental primary schools in Tabriz city in the academic year 2016-2017.  They were selected by purposeful sampling, one-stage cluster sampling, and screening procedures. Measurement instruments included the Peer Nomination Form (Pekarik et al., 1976), Teacher Nomination Form (Werthamer-Larsson et al., 1991), Pro-bully Nomination Form (Salmivalli et al., 1996), Illinois Bullying Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001), and School Bonding Scale (Cernkovich & Giordano, 1992). In addition 8 one-hour sessions of school-based behavioral intervention was conducted for 8 week. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to analyze the data.

The results revealed that school-based behavioral intervention can reduce bullying and fighting and improve teacher and school attachment and school involvement among bully students (p>0.001, F=9.78).

The results indicate that school-based behavioral intervention through the behavior management training to bullies, teachers and pro-bullies is effective in reducing components of bullying behavior and improving components of school bonding and can be used as an appropriate intervention procedure for children with physical bullying behavior. In addition, the results of this study can help the school counselors, education psychologists, and teachers to improve children school bonding.