Anti-bullying trial gets tough on results
For the victim (and indeed the perpetrator), bullying can have a significant impact on a child's physical and mental health. What should be an environment for learning and growth for a child, can turn school into a prison, cultivating immense anxiety, aggression, and social withdrawal. Results from a trial carried out by experts in the UK and US indicate that CAPSLE ('Creating a peaceful school learning environment') could be a method that may reduce or even eliminate this destructive behaviour from both the school yard and classroom. Conclusions drawn from trials conducted by University College London (UCL) in the UK, and the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Kansas in the US, were recently published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Lead author Professor Peter Fonagy explained that while programmes to counter bullying are widely used in schools across the globe, few of these have been properly tested for the improvements they may or may not generate. Furthermore, few programmes draw attention specifically to the role of the bystander in bullying scenarios. 'CAPSLE is a psychodynamic approach that addresses the co-created relationship between bully, victim, and bystanders, assuming that all members of the school community, including teachers, play a role in bullying,' said Professor Fonagy, Head of the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London. 'It aims to improve the capacity of all community members to mentalise, that is, to interpret one's own and others' behaviour in terms of mental states (beliefs, wishes, feelings), assuming that greater awareness of other people's feelings will counteract the temptation to bully others.' The three-year randomised controlled trial (RCT) took place in 9 elementary schools in a midwest city in the United States with almost 1,500 students aged 8-11 years (third to fifth graders). In making an assessment of the effectiveness of CAPSLE, these schools were compared in the study with both schools receiving no intervention, and those using School Psychiatric Consultation (SPC), whereby students with extreme behavioural problems are counselled. The CAPSLE programme was created and developed over seven years by Professor Stuart Twemlow of Baylor College of Medicine's Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department, and trailed between 1999 and 2001. Looking beyond the roles of bully and victim, CAPSLE's focus is to develop mentalisation skills in the wider school community, by engaging students and teachers in their potential role as bystander. In the RCT, for example, students received self defence lessons to help them understand their response to victimisation, and how it impacts them personally. During the trial, teachers also received group training, and the school day would end with a 15-minute reflection period on the day's events (using a format depicted in posters placed in classrooms). Students would decide whether they had been reflective and compassionate, and whether the class had a successful day of mentalising. Regular behavioural observations were also conducted during the trail on a randomly chosen group of students, and every six months students were asked to complete questionnaires on acts of aggression, victimisation, bystanding behaviour and mentalisation. The RCT did not establish specific rules against bullying, nor did it encourage any special treatment. Nevertheless, over time, the CAPSLE team observed that school bullies came to be disempowered. Overall results from the three types of schools monitored showed that, although bullying had increased across the board (it is important to note that the district had been affected by numerous socioeconomic problems during the three-year study), the percentages were most pronounced in the schools that had not undergone the programme. There are two reasons for the results being successful, according to Professor Twemlow, who has also worked as a consultant on school shootings for the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 'First, the city had lost major industry, there was an increase in violence with it ranking as most violent in the USA in its population range, and the populace were very scared of drive-by shootings. Any improvement was considered nothing short of a miracle given the social circumstances,' the professor said of the mid-west city where the study took place. 'Secondly this, to our knowledge, is the first RCT with an exclusive focus on the bystander population with no attempts to directly remediate the bully or victim. It gives schools a truly cross-cultural way to focus on the school climate as a whole, which is generally regarded as the preferred way to manage school violence.' CAPSLE has been funded by a number of private foundations. Concepts derived from the method have been also been used in programmes in Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Hungary.
Countries
United Kingdom, United States