KiVa antibullying program

KiVa antibullying program has been developed at the University of Turku with funding from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. KiVa is an acronym for “Kiusaamista Vastaan”, that is “Against bullying” or “Anti-bullying”. The Finnish word kiva also means a person being nice, kind, or friendly. The KiVa program was evaluated during 2007–2009 in a large randomized control trial involving approximately 30 000 students and their teachers. Since 2009 the program has been disseminated to Finnish schools and currently 90% of all Finnish comprehensive schools have registered as users of the program (Salmivalli & Poskiparta, 2012).

KiVa is a theory-based intervention program based on the notion that bullying is a group phenomenon. Rather than consisting of separate aggressive acts towards a student, bullying is a rather stable relationship between the victim and the perpetrator(s), further embedded within the larger peer group. KiVa is founded on the idea that the way in which peer bystanders, who are neither bullies nor victims, behave when witnessing bullying is crucial for either maintaining bullying or putting an end to it. By bullying others the perpetrator may gain and sustain status in the peer group. If the peer group does not provide rewards to the perpetrator, for example by laughing when a child gets bullied, the perpetrator does not get the social rewards he or she is after. Influencing the peer context is thus essential in preventing and reducing school bullying.

Does KiVa reduce the level of bullying and victimization in elementary schools?

May 2012, October 2012, May 2013, October 2013, May 2014

The KiVa program includes both universal and indicated actions. Universal actions are targeted at all students, in order to raise awareness of bullying and of the role that the peer group often plays in maintaining it, to enhance anti-bullying attitudes, and to provide safe strategies to support and defend victimized peers. Ten age-appropriate double lessons are provided for the classroom teachers to be delivered in grades 1 and 4. In addition, four separate themes are planned to be worked through in grade 7, which, in Finland, is the first year in secondary school. Furthermore, the program involves virtual learning environments targeting various age groups and linked to the lessons (years 1, 4 and 7). By exploring the various tasks in the virtual learning environments the students rehearse the knowledge and skills they have acquired during the student lessons. The indicated actions come into play when a bullying case comes to the attention of the school. A trained anti-bullying team, KiVa team, tackles such cases through guidelines provided in the program manual. In addition, the classroom teacher always meets with 2-3 classmates of the victimized child, encouraging them to support the peer who is having a difficult time. Taken together, KiVa is not merely an abstract philosophy but is a very concrete program deeply rooted in the research on aggression in peer group settings.