This paper reports on a meta-analysis examining how bullying prevention programs address the three subtypes of traditional bullying (relational, physical, and verbal), analyzing effects between and within subtypes but not addressing the fourth subtype of cyberbullying; it also includes a moderator analysis that examines the impact study-level differences have on those outcomes.
This paper presents the results from a meta-analytical review of the effectiveness of bullying prevention programs on three subtypes of traditional bullying victimization: physical, verbal, and relational. A systematic search of three online databases was conducted for bullying prevention program evaluations published between 1990 and 2018. The search yielded a final sample of 33 articles that met the identified inclusion criteria. The results of the meta-analysis suggest that bullying prevention programs are effective at reducing physical and relational forms of bullying victimization, but not verbal forms, at least in the United States. The results found that youth who participated in a prevention program, both inside and outside of the United States had 32 percent higher odds of a reduction in relational and physical bullying victimization compared to the control group, and 28 percent higher odds of a reduction in verbal bullying victimization for programs implemented outside the United States. The US programs were not effective with verbal bullying victimization. Future research could explore this potential gap related to verbal bullying victimization, and the difference in findings between studies conducted in the United States and those conducted internationally. (Published Abstract Provided)