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Steps to Respect®: A Bullying Prevention Program is a research-based, comprehensive bullying prevention program developed for grades 3 through 6 by Committee for Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving children’s lives through effective social and emotional learning programs. The program is designed to decrease school bullying problems by 1) increasing staff awareness and responsiveness, 2) fostering socially responsible beliefs, and 3) teaching social–emotional skills to counter bullying and promote healthy relationships. Thus the program also aims to promote skills (e.g., group joining, conflict resolution) associated with general social competence.
The program has three components: a schoolwide program guide, staff training, and classroom lessons. The program guide component presents an overview of the curriculum content, goals of the program, research foundations, and a blueprint for developing a schoolwide policy and specific procedures. The foundation of the staff training component is a core instructional session for all school staff and two in-depth training sessions for counselors, administrators, and teachers in which all staff receive an overview of program goals and key features of the program content (e.g., a definition of bullying, a model for responding to bullying reports). Teachers, counselors, and administrators receive additional training in how to coach students involved in bullying. Also, third through sixth grade teachers complete an orientation to classroom materials and instructional strategies. The classroom curriculum component is the core aspect of the program. It comprises skill and literature-based lessons presented by third through sixth grade teachers over a 12- to 14-week period. Level 1 is taught at third or fourth grade, level 2 at fourth or fifth grade, and level 3 at fifth or sixth grade. Each curriculum kit includes 11 skill lessons and two literature unit selections, which contain 7–10 lessons each. Skill lessons are designed to be taught weekly and are broken into three parts, each of which takes 20–30 minutes to teach. Topics include joining groups, distinguishing reporting from tattling, and being a responsible bystander. Instructional strategies include large and small group discussions, skills practice, and games. Literature lessons use children’s books to explore bullying-related themes and are designed to last 30–40 minutes each.
The Steps to Respect® program was evaluated with an experimental trial. Six schools were randomly assigned to the intervention or control (waitlist) condition. The schools were matched for size, ethnic breakdown, and percentage of students receiving free and reduced price lunches. The full sample included 1,126 children in grades 3 through 6, with 549 children assigned to the treatment condition and 577 assigned to the control condition. The sample was equally divided by gender. The ethnic breakdown was 70.0 percent European-American, 12.7 percent Asian-American, 9.0 percent African-American, 7.0 percent Hispanic-American, and 1.3 percent Native American. The proportion of students speaking English as a second language was 11.5 percent. The groups did not vary by condition. Outcome measures included 1) teacher rating of peer instructional skills using the Peer-Preferred Social Behavior subscale of the Walker McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School adjustment, Elementary Version; 2) a student survey of belief and behavior using the Student Experience Survey; 3) observational coding of playground aggression; 4) and observer training and agreement to train coders.
The evaluation found that the program produced significant improvements 12 weeks after implementation. In terms of bullying-related beliefs and behaviors, students in the intervention schools reported significantly less acceptance of bullying/aggression, perceived greater adult responsiveness, and felt more responsible to intervene with friends who were bullied (bystander responsibility) than students in the control schools. In addition, students in the intervention group tended to report less victimization at the posttest than did those in the control group. There were, however, no differences in direct or indirect aggression in self-reported behavior and teacher ratings of interaction skills. The analyses of changes in playground behavior revealed declines in bullying and argumentative behavior among the students in the intervention group relative to students in the control group, increases in agreeable interactions, and a trend toward reduced destructive bystander behavior.
Compared with girls, boys benefited more from program participation in two respects. Boys in the treatment group showed increases in agreeable behavior and a greater decline in perceived difficulty of responding assertively to bullying (relative to boys in the control group). Girls did not differ from their counterparts on these measures.
Frey, Karin S., Miriam K. Hirschstein, Jennie L. Snell, Leihua Van Schoiack–Edstrom, Elizabeth P. MacKenzie, and Carole J. Broderick. 2005. “Reducing Playground Bullying and Supporting Beliefs: An Experimental Trial of the Steps to Respect® Program.” Developmental Psychology 41(3):479–91.
Customer Service
Committee for Children
568 First Avenue South, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98104–2804
Phone: (800) 634-4449
E-mail: info@cfchildren.org
Web site: http://www.cfchildren.org/cfc/str/aboutSTR
Customer Service
Committee for Children
568 First Avenue South, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98104–2804
Phone: (800) 634-4449
E-mail: info@cfchildren.org
Web site: http://www.cfchildren.org/cfc/str/aboutSTR
