School‐based anti‐bullying approaches for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities: a systematic review and synthesis

Journal article

Abstract:: Mainstream anti-bullying interventions can reduce primary school-level victimisation by 15–16% and bullying perpetration by 19%–20% (Aggression and Violent Behavior, 2019; 45: 111–133). Less is known about anti-bullying interventions for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) even though they are at least 2–4 times more likely to be involved in bullying. This systematic review aimed to identify reported anti-bullying approaches for pupils with SEND, what the evidence is for these approaches reducing bullying and which design factors are linked to a reduction in bullying. We searched 10 databases and four grey literature sources for articles that evaluated school-based anti-bullying strategies for children and young people aged 4–18 years with SEND. This review included 15 studies and used the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool for quality and risk of bias. Ten reported a reduction in bullying involvement, but the evidence was variable. A further 27 articles formed a ‘suggested strategies’ review which synthesised articles without evaluations of interventions but that suggested anti-bullying strategies for use with pupils with SEND. The main suggestion was encouraging social skills and networks. Interventions should be evaluated for feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness. High-quality randomised controlled trials are required to build an evidence base to support pupils with SEND.

Files:: Badger_et_al_2024_School-based_anti-bullying_approaches.pdf

(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 305.2KB, Terms of use)

Publisher:: Wiley
Journal:: Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs More from this journal
Volume:: 24
Issue:: 3
Pages:: 742-757
Publication date:: 2024-03-26
Acceptance date:: 2024-03-11
DOI:: 10.1111/1471-3802.12665
EISSN:: 1471-3802
ISSN:: 1471-3802

Language:: English
Keywords:: disabilities

bullying

school

intervention

children

special educational needs
Pubs id:: 1988377
Local pid:: pubs:1988377
Deposit date:: 2024-04-08

Copyright holder:: Badger et al.
Rights statement:: © 2024 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of National Association for Special Educational Needs. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record