School Social Workers’ Perceptions on Challenges In Implementing School Bullying Prevention Programs

Background and Purpose

Bullying is pervasive in schools nationwide, affecting 17.9% to 30.9% of students, mostly from 4th to 12th grade. It is important to identify and prevent bullying because individuals who experience bullying report depression, anxiety, and self-injurious behaviors.

Given the consequences of bullying, efforts have been made to develop evidence-based school bullying prevention programs, such as Olweus, KiVa, and Positive Action, to name a few. However, the effectiveness of these programs is mixed due to differences in how they are implemented in school settings.

School social workers play an important role in implementing bullying prevention programs. Nevertheless, limited research has examined their perspectives on the challenges in implementing school bullying prevention programs and the resources needed for effective implementation. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the challenges and required resources identified by school social workers for the effective implementation of such programs.

Methods

Surveys were distributed to the listserv of a school social worker organization. Respondents were asked to answer two open-ended questions: “What challenges have you encountered when implementing the program”? and “What additional supports or resources do you need to implement the program effectively to prevent bullying in the school”? We analyzed the data using a thematic analysis method, with an open coding process followed by axial coding.

The final sample consisted of 114 school social workers from across the U.S. Of these, 94.8% were female, 76.6% were Non-Hispanic White, and 85.4% had more than 5 years of experience as school social workers. The majority of respondents worked in elementary school (32.5%), followed by middle school (18.4%), and high school (11.4%). More than half (55.3%) of the students in schools where the school social workers worked were Non-Hispanic White. Half (50%) of schools used an evidence-based bullying prevention intervention; the other half did not, and 75.5% of schools implemented the intervention school-wide.

Results

Four challenges were identified: time shortage (n=24), teacher buy-in (n=21), student buy-in (n=18), and lack of consistent training for all staff (n=12). Due to the limited time provided for implementing the bullying prevention program, school social workers could not cover all the content in the session. Lack of consistent training for all staff involved in the program’s implementation led to inconsistent program implementation.

Based on the challenges, they wanted additional financial support to utilize an evidence-based program, more staff training, and integration of the bullying prevention program into the school curriculum to achieve better outcomes.

Conclusions and Implications

Our findings are consistent with previous research indicating that school social workers believe that incorporating bullying prevention programs into the curriculum has a greater effect on reducing bullying than having an annual school-wide program. Unique state and school characteristics affected the implementation of the bullying prevention program, such as the school’s district policy towards bullying and the school’s resources. School personnel must be aware of how the above affects the implementation of bullying prevention programs.