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Working together towards family-school partnership:

A.General description on research questions, objectives, and theoretical framework.Research suggests that teachers and parents might be better equipped to tackle school bullying when they collaborate (Axford et al., 2015; Gaffney et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2019). Despite the various efforts to secure family-school partnerships, parents’ involvement in schools’ antibullying interventions remains limited (Gaffney et al., 2021).Motivated to improve their family-school anti-bullying collaboration, three Dutch primary school communities took part in a participatory action research (Brydon‐Miller & Maguire, 2009) project. From 2019-2021, educational professionals and parents worked together supported by researchers, to pinpoint areas for improvement, and develop targeted solutions for their schools. The applied approach was similar to ‘action teams for partnership’ (Epstein, 2018), which has been argued to increase parent engagement to attain schools’ development goals. In this study, we evaluated the project with participating parents, educational professionals, and researchers, to discover how they reflect on the process and its outcomes. Our aim was to find out whether (and how) the participatory action research approach helped school communities to work towards family-school partnership to tackle bullying. B.Methods/methodologySemi-structured interviews were conducted with participating parents (n=3/5), educational professionals (n=7/10) and researchers (n=3/3), through video calls which were recorded and transcribed. Content analysis was conducted to gain insight in participants’ experiences in the collaborative process of conducting research and designing solutions, and the perceived outcomes for themselves and their school.C.Expected outcome/resultsIn this contribution, we critically reflect on our participatory action research approach, aiming to offer some guidance to community members and researchers looking to conduct similar studies. Overall, participants valued the collaborative process, and mentioned beneficial outcomes for themselves and/or their schools. Evaluations of the developed solutions, however, were mixed. Participants’ experiences were mainly related to alignment of interests and goals, group and community building, and exchange and coordination, as well as school- and contextual factors. While securing long lasting change remains challenging, participatory action research seems to be a fruitful approach to work towards family-school partnership.D.ReferencesAxford, N., Farrington, D. P., Clarkson, S., Bjornstad, G. J., Wrigley, Z., & Hutchings, J. (2015). Involving parents in school-based programmes to prevent and reduce bullying: What effect does it have? Journal of Children’s Services, 10(3), 242–251. https://doi.org/10/gk4fqzBrydon‐Miller, M., & Maguire, P. (2009). Participatory action research: Contributions to the development of practitioner inquiry in education. Educational Action Research, 17(1), 79–93. https://doi.org/10/dqbbn3Epstein, J. L. (2018). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Routledge.Gaffney, H., Ttofi, M. M., & Farrington, D. P. (2021). What works in anti-bullying programs? Analysis of effective intervention components. Journal of School Psychology, 85, 37–56. https://doi.org/10/gh24fpHuang, Y., Espelage, D. L., Polanin, J. R., & Hong, J. S. (2019). A Meta-analytic Review of School-Based Anti-bullying Programs with a Parent Component. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 1(1). https://doi.org/10/gjhzqj

Effects of bullying prevention interventions on competencies of elementary school professionals

Working together across institutions

Background: School bullying has detrimental impact on the health of those involved. Previously, bullying was perceived as an issue of ‘victims’ and ‘bullies’, while later, interventions targeted whole groups and schools. Nowadays, it is considered a societal issue: bullying is enabled by norms and context. These new understandings underline the need for collaboration across institutions, such as home and school. However, in practice, collaboration can be challenging. Parents and teachers have their personal strengths and weaknesses, and their interactions, characteristics of the school, and several societal factors impact their opportunities for productive family-school partnerships. Guidance regarding what works in anti-bullying collaboration is therefore urgently needed.Aim: The applied research project ‘together against bullying’ addressed the need for practical insights regarding cross-institutional collaboration. Together with stakeholders, we aimed to discover the barriers and facilitators to anti-bullying collaboration. Our main research question was: What factors aid family-school partnership to tackle bullying?Methods: We were interested in people’s experiences of collaboration against bullying. Narrative interviewing, self-report surveys, and semi structured interviewing were the methods employed throughout our participatory action research project. Findings: Parents and teachers collaborate during discovering, interpreting, planning, acting, and evaluating of bullying situations. Our preliminary findings suggest they face multiple obstacles along the way. However, there are facilitators as well. When parents and teachers for example communicate frequently and openly, construct a shared understanding, trust, and respect each other, and acknowledge their shared responsibility, they can indeed successfully collaborate to effectively tackle bullying. Conclusions: Our project shows that parents and teachers can overcome obstacles inherent to collaboration to tackle bullying. Through participatory action, teachers and parents became aware of the context in which they collaborate, discovered factors that impact collaboration, and were able to utilize these insights to advance their understanding and practice of family-school partnership to tackle bullying.

Effects of a school-wide anti-bullying program: Empower both students and teachers!

Effects of the Prima anti-bullying program on victimization, classroom peer context and defending behavior Marloes van Verseveld, Minne Fekkes, Ruben Fukkink & Ron Oostdam Background and aims Victimization among children is associated with adverse effects on their physical and psychological health and many schools attempt to reduce bullying. The Dutch school-wide anti-bullying program ‘Prima’ was developed based on techniques and scientific insights that are known to be effective. We investigate the effects of the Prima anti-bullying program on students’ victimization, defending behavior, and the classroom peer context in Grades 3-6. Methods The study participants included 4,368 students from 32 primary schools. The schools were randomly assigned to three conditions. Condition A was offered a teacher-training, an online screening tool for bullying behavior, and a set of practice- and evidence-based guidelines to deal with difficult bullying situations. Condition B included all of condition A plus a series of eight student lessons. Condition C was the control group. A questionnaire was filled out by the students before and after the intervention. Program effects were based on self- and peer-reports. Results Prima reduced students’ peer-reported victimization and the level of isolated students in the classroom. Students in the intervention conditions also reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy to defend victimized students in their classroom compared to students in the control condition. A trend effect of Prima was observed for students who were nominated as defender of victimized students by peers. The intervention condition with student lessons showed larger effects. Conclusions Our results suggest that Prima reduced victimization in intervention schools, especially in intervention schools that provided student lessons about bullying. The positive outcomes support previous findings on the effectiveness of Prima. Furthermore, our study underlines the importance to include student lessons in whole school anti-bullying programs that focus on creating a positive group norm and pro-social and defending behaviors.

Teachers' Experiences With Difficult Bullying Situations in the School: An Explorative Study

Although anti-bullying programs often include a component that focuses on strengthening teachers’ abilities in identifying and addressing bullying, it is not clear which bullying situations teachers find difficult to address and what type of support is needed. In the current qualitative study, we investigated what teachers considered difficult bullying situations, how they responded to these situations, and which barriers they encountered. We used data from individual in-depth interviews conducted with 38 Dutch elementary school teachers. Qualitative analysis showed that teachers experienced difficulties in (a) identifying bullying that happens out of sight, (b) estimating the seriousness of a reported incident, (c) addressing persistent aggressive and bullying behavior, and (d) finding solutions with parents to reduce bullying. Teachers used a variety of strategies in their efforts to address these situations. The results give insight into teachers’ needs regarding specific training and support in anti-bullying programs and preservice teacher programs.

Bullying and mental health: the effects of Prima anti-bullying program in The Netherlands

Background:Victimization among children is associated with adverse effects on their physical and psychological health. Many health complaints follow as a result of bullying and anxiety and depression also precede bullying. The Dutch school-wide antibullying program ‘Prima’ was developed based on techniques and scientific insights that are known to be effective. In this randomized trial we investigate the effects of school-wide antibullying program on bullying behavior and self-esteem and depression.Methods:A total of 4,229 students of grade 3 to 6 of 31 primary schoolsparticipated in this study. The schools were randomly assigned to three conditions. Condition A was offered a teachertraining, an online screening tool for bullying behavior, and a set of practice- and evidence-based guidelines to deal with difficult bullying situations. Condition B included all of condition A plus a series of eight lessons for the students. Condition C was the control group. A questionnaire was filled out by the students before and after the intervention.Results:Results from the pretest showed that 16% of the students was bullied regularly. There was a significant difference between bullied and non-bullied children in their reported mental health. Bullied students indicated much more depressive symptoms compared to non-bullied students (3,67 vs 1,67, p= .000). Bullied children also indicated lower self-esteem (16,74 vs 19,84, p = .000). The effects of the intervention program are currently analyzed and will be presented at the conference in the fall of 2018.Conclusions:Bullying is strongly related to mental health issues among children. To address mental health issues among youth, schools should focus on evidence-based anti-bullying programs as a vital part of a wider school policy.Key messages:-Bullying has a strong impact on the wellbeing and mental health of children.-School programs focused on preventing bullying can therefore reduce health complaints among children.