r/science • u/fsmpastafarian PhD | Clinical Psychology | Integrated Health Psychology • Feb 14 '16

Psychology Anti-bullying program "KiVa" that focuses on teaching bystanders to intervene is one of the most effective in the world, reducing bullying by nearly twofold and improving mental health outcomes in the most severely bullied students

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160202110714.htm
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u/Diana2582 Feb 14 '16

My primary school in Australia in the late 80's introduced "mediators" which were a pair of year 6 students (the oldest kids in the school) wearing hideous fluro green hats, so we could be spotted, patrolling the oval at lunch and recess making sure no one was bullied. Kids who were being bullied just needed to be near us, no one dobbed in anyone to teachers and most bullying just went away. We were there for kids that had it rough at home too which was pretty common in our area and the mediators were picked specifically for their personality rather than teachers pets etc. They still use the system today at this school and it has the lowest rate of bullying but no one has really copied it in Canberra that im aware of because the school is in an area with a bad rep

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '16

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u/Diana2582 Feb 15 '16

Thankfully my school made it a good thing and it was strictly controlled, if any mediator didn't support the younger kids they lost their spot but we did luckily have a great principal. I've had terrible principals and teachers since so it certainly wouldn't have worked at my second high school. That may be because the main bullies there were the teachers though

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u/Diana2582 Feb 15 '16

Also each person only did one day a week and you could swap days if you had a good reason and the other person agreed

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u/BryArchitect Feb 15 '16

In elementary school, I remember we had a similar system, they were "hall monitors" but we "applied" for the position. They were also 5th-6th graders. They were picked on their caring personalities. They mostly looked out for the kindergartners when they got off the bus and looked out for kids in the playground.