The first anti-bullying project took place more than 30 years ago in Scandinavia. Since then, projects have cropped up around the world, mostly taking a similar overall approach: raising awareness of bullying and getting students to engage in activities that highlight its negative effects.
By 2004, enough anti-bullying projects had been introduced in enough places to review their overall impact, including some meta-analyses of their results. Unfortunately, the evidence about their success was disappointing. In fact, some schools actually suffered an increase in bullying during these campaigns—which parallels what we know often happens with other projects of this nature, such as anti-smoking and anti-drug initiatives in schools, anti-crime programs with at-risk adolescents, and anti-pregnancy initiatives for teens.
When I was given the job of coordinating an anti-bullying project in the 1990s in the North of England, I knew very little about the issue. I was simply urged to “get into the schools and do something.” In my haste, I naively thought that anti-bullying meant the opposite of bullying, so I came up with as many activities as I could that promoted friendship and support.
[For more of this story, written by Sue Young, go to https://www.psychotherapynetwo...llying-support-group]
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