Data from an anti-bullying program used in Finland and funded by its government suggests it has had a significant impact on bullying throughout Finnish schools.
The program is called KiVa, short for “kiusaamista vastaan”, which translates to “against bullying”. Developed by educators and researchers at the University of Turku, its main focus is to concentrate on classrooms as a whole instead of segregating individual bullies and their victims, according to CNN.
The curriculum utilizes lesson plans, computer games, and role-playing exercises that focus on the bystanders of bullying with the intent to create empathetic students who are advocates for victims of bullying.
“The idea is that kids bully to gain status and power,” says Julie Hubbard, a psychology professor at the University of Delaware who has studied the effectiveness of KiVa on American students. “If you can get the bystanders to focus on the victim and not the bully, then bullying isn’t a very rewarding thing to do.”
KiVa Results
A UCLA study, led by Jaana Juvonen, a professor of psychology at the university, says KiVa is one of the world’s most effective anti-bullying program.
“Our findings are the first to show that the most tormented children — those facing bullying several times a week — can be helped by teaching bystanders to be more supportive,” says Juvonen.
The 2016 study focused on 7,000 fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade students in 77 Finnish elementary schools. 39 of the 77 schools used KiVA while the remaining 38 schools were given much less comprehensive suggestions on how to handle bullying.
The study says that KiVa significantly reduced the depression of the 4 percent of sixth graders who were bullied the most frequently in each school. The study considered frequent bullying to be at least once a week.
Results claim that the program also improved self-esteem among the 15 percent of sixth graders who had been bullied the most.
The study also says that a meta-analysis of 53 anti-bullying programs was recently conducted worldwide. The data showed KiVa to be one of the most effective programs, finding that after nine months of implementation, students were 1.5 to 2 times less likely to experience bullying than students in schools that did not use the program.
Why Experts Say KiVa Wouldn’t Work in U.S. Schools
Some researchers suggest that while the program has proven successful in Finnish schools, it would not be effective in U.S. schools.
“The United States is a different beast,” says Dorothy Espelage, a psychology professor at the University of Florida who studies bullying and harassment.
Espelage and Hubbard collectively attribute the unlikelihood of the program working in the U.S. to several glaring reasons.
Espelage says social inequalities such as race and class increase the risk of bullying.
“Finnish students are homogeneous economically, racially and culturally, whereas US schools are distinctly diverse on socioeconomic status, ethnicity and religious background,” says Espelage.
In 2014, 50 percent of American students were white, 25 percent were Hispanic, 16 percent were African American, and the remaining 9 percent were Asians, Pacific Islanders or mixed race, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.
Comparatively, the UCLA study found that only 2.1 percent of Finnish students are non-white.
Finnish teachers are also held to a higher standard than American teachers and receive more recognition for their important work.
Hubbard says “the best and brightest” Finns become teachers and are viewed in the same light as doctors and lawyers. “They value their teachers that way and they pay their teachers that way.”
Hubbard also says that American teachers have many more expectations than Finnish teachers, which eats up a lot of their time. “They’re supposed to do drug prevention, they’re supposed to do sex education, they’re supposed to do so many things, and bullying prevention is just another thing that’s on the list.”
Other studies have found that Finland has one of the best school systems in the world. It has often been attributed to the fact that all teachers must have master’s degrees and that the Finnish government provides free access to all levels of education in order to afford students from all socioeconomic backgrounds the same educational opportunities.
Schools in the U.S. have varying levels of funding and access to educational resources, making equal opportunities for all students virtually impossible.
“Education is local,” says Espelage. “There’s not going to be one program that fits all. It’s going to have to be tailored to the context.”
What Can We Do Next?
Hubbard believes that in order for KiVa to work in American schools, the country’s entire approach to bullying needs to change.
“It’s not a 30-minute assembly at the beginning of the school year and then you check that box,” says Hubbard. In order for any prevention program to work, it takes time and effort.
Hubbard also urges the importance of convincing school administrators that focusing on social and emotional learning, such as bullying, will help improve academic performance and test scores.
Advocates are also urged to focus their funding on research that takes into account both the diversity within American schools and issues facing our educational system.
