title: Interventions on bullying and cyberbullying in schools: a systematic review.
abstract: Background : bullying (and cyberbullying) is a widespread phenomenon among young people and it is used to describe interpersonal relationships characterized by an imbalance of power. In this relationships often show aggressive behavior and intentional "harm doing" repeated over time. The prevalence of bullying among youth has been reported to vary widely among countries (5.1%-41.4%) and this behavior seems generally higher among student boys than girls. Several school interventions have been developed to reduce bullying, but reported inconsistent results possibly related to limitations in the study design or to other methodological shortcomings. Aims : evaluating randomized-controlled trials (RTCs) conducted between 2000 and 2013 to assess the effectiveness of school interventions on bullying and cyberbullying. Methods : a systematic search of the scientific literature was conducted on Pubmed/Medline and Ebsco online databases. We also contacted experts in the field of preventive bullying research. Results : 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of studies did not show positive effects in the long term; the interventions focused on the whole school were more effective in reducing bullying than interventions delivered through classroom curricula or social skills training alone. Conclusion : while there is evidence that programs aimed at reducing bullying can be effective in the short term, their long-term effectiveness has not been established, and there are important differences in the results based on gender, age and socio-economic status of participants. Internal inconsistency in the findings of some studies, together with the wide variability of experimental designs and lack of common standardized measures in outcome evaluation, are important limitations in this field of research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cantone
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Piras
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vellante
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonello
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Preti
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Health Barónsstíg 47, IS-105 Reykjavík, Iceland.
authors.forename: Sigrun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Daníelsdóttir
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: D'Aloja
authors.affiliation: Vilnius University, Clinic of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Sigita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lesinskiene
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy ; Center for Public Mental Health, Gosim Austria.
authors.forename: Mathhias C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Angermeyer
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Health Barónsstíg 47, IS-105 Reykjavík, Iceland.
authors.forename: Mauro G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Carta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry (KCL), DeCrespigny Park, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Dinesh
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bhugra
keywords: Bullying; cyber bullying; randomized controlled trials; school
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