Developing A Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Program to Reduce Bully Tendencies in Primary School Children and The Program Effectiveness

Abstract

The goal of this study was to develop a group therapy program involving Cognitive Behavioral techniques aiming to reduce the bullying among elementary school children and evaluate its efficacy. Fifty-four students from the 5^th and 6^th grades were assigned to experimental group which take cognitive behavioral therapy - CBEG (20 students), placebo control group-PCG (16 students) and non-intervention control group NICG (18 students) according to their scores based on Peer Bullying Scale child form -bully test. The group intervention was run for 13 weeks. The students filled at the Peer Bullying Scale child form -bully subscale (PBS-CF), Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory short form (CSEI-sf) and Inventory of Cognitions Related to Bullying for Children (ICBC), and before and after the intervention and during 4 months follow up. All the scores were analyzed using repeated measures Anova. Results showed that, although there was no significant difference between group x-time interaction, the scores related to bullying had a significant relation with time. This significance was related to the difference between experimental and placebo group’s scores in pre-test and post-tests. In both groups the bullying scores decreased significantly. The other findings suggested that the cognitions related to bullying had a significant relation with time. This significance was thought to be related with the difference between pre- and post-tests in experimental group. The decrease in the bullying scores was significant after the group intervention.