Bullying has for long existed, and there is no day that passes without intentional or incidental case of bullying registered somewhere. However, many institutions seem to have disregarded its existence, while some do not even take it seriously. Nevertheless, we recognize that bullying of whatever scale has destructive and sometimes torturous effects. In fact, it’s possible for a victim of bullying to react hysterically and hit his bully to death in defense after a long time of agony. More so, it’s a possible occurrence for a victim of bullying to spend a rough life, tortured in mental health illnesses, such as panic disorders, generalized anxiety, depression or agoraphobia just because s/he could not find safety from years of bullying.
Today, many schools have enhanced their mechanisms in fighting against bullying. However, it’s a common pattern that many schools resort to zero tolerance measures, including the use of legislation, penal actions or the commitment of school staff to intervening immediately on sight of a bullying act to discourage or diffuse bullying. It, however, emerges that these measures are not definitively effective. Some bullying activities happen undetected and victims are mostly terrified of their bullies and fear that reporting might cause even worse problems. It thus follows that there is need for more concrete tools for preventing bullying in schools and at home.
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The KiVa Program: A brief description
In 2006, the ministry of education and culture, in the conjunction with Turku University set to develop a reliable program that could be effective in drastically eradicating the elusive, persistent and disparaging problem of bullying in Finnish schools. The product was the KiVa program. The word kiva means ‘nice’ in Finning. However, the term KiVa is an acronym for Kiusaamista Vastaan, which means ‘against bullying’ in Finnish. After completion, the program’s effectiveness was evaluated at Turku University for effectiveness. On consistent evaluation, the program effectiveness score was promising, which is observed in its endorsement rate in Finnish comprehensive schools. As of today, it’s reported that the KiVa anti-bullying program has been implemented in over 82 percent of Finnish comprehensive schools.
A little more details on the KiVa Program
The KiVa Anti-bullying Program was developed to deliver a specific set of aims. These include:
- Raising awareness of how the group plays may be effective in reducing bullying
- Increasing empathy between students as a means to reduce bullying
- Promoting strategies effective in supporting the victims of bullying and supporting a child’s self-efficacy in using those strategies
- Increase the ability of a child to recover and cope when victimized, so as to reduce the susceptibility to suffering these effects in later years.
How the KiVa Program functions
KiVa approaches the reduction of bullying by:
- Improving anti-bullying attitudes- this involves creating a culture, belief and negative attitude to students, that bullying is bad. Children are exposed to the effects of bullying through watching films pursuing the bad effects of bullying.
- Empowering students with skills and abilities to defend a victim of bullying. Having been coached of what is bullying and belief that it’s bad, the students are empowered to defend any case of bullying on sight.
- Identifying bullies-students (mainly victims) are required to identify other victims of and perpetrators, who are then slowly recruited to be fighters of bullying.
Key components of KiVa
KiVa programs consist of10 lessons delivered in 20 hours by class teachers. Students are required to engage in activities, like group work, discussions, role-playing, film watching and computer exercises. Each lesson is set to pursue a specific theme, and one rule is associated with this theme. By the end of the lesson, the class adopts this rule as a class rule against bullying. By the end of the year, all the rules are combined into a contract, which every student signs. Specific manuals for grades 1–3, 4–6, and 7–9 are developed to enhance efficiency. An interesting component of KiVa programs is the arrangement of discussions between the bullies and victims mediated by the teacher/school staff for reconciliation. This improves class relationships, ease of healing and recovery of the victims.
Why are these outcomes important?
Bullying leads to physical and emotional injuries, some of which are long-term effects. If anything, reducing or eradicating bullying all together is always a welcome idea. KiVa is associated with development of positive feelings about peers, which then reduces students’ willingness to stand the pain of bullying another or cheering another person bullying other persons.
Study on effectiveness of KiVa programs, and the outcomes
The study targeted about 8,000 students enrolled in 78 schools in their 4th-6th grades. About half of the classrooms in the 78 schools were exposed to the KiVa program, while the remaining half was considered a control group. Data was collected at three points in the course of the study (7th May, 7th December- 8th January, and 8th May). This was necessary to detect bullying case changes over time. Comparisons on peer-reported victimization and possible effects such as anxiety and depression, and peer perceptions between the KiVa group and the control group were keenly monitored.
Anxiety levels were similar at initial data collection. However, at subsequent points, levels of anxiety, such as fear of being bullied were lower among the KiVa group. This was attributed to the effectiveness of KiVa to creating a positive social climate among students.
Outcomes and observations
Peer perception was found to be better with the KiVa group. Though the levels were not significantly different, the KiVa program was found to improve students’ perception of each other, which improved positive attitudes, such as empathy, respect and kindness.
Peer-reported victimization also dropped among the KiVa group compared to the control group. This was attributed to possible reduction in cases of bullying. In general, the researchers concluded that the KiVa program was highly effective in as an anti-bulling measure.
Last Updated on September 12, 2021