Short-Term Effects of an Intervention to Prevent Bullying on First-Grade Secondary School Children of Palermo, Italy: The "BIAS" Study

The Bullying in Sicilian School study aimed to investigate the prevalence of bullying and the short-term effects on the students’ perception of bullying after a preventive intervention conducted among teachers of first-grade secondary schools of Palermo, Sicily (Italy). Between the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 school years, a pre-post intervention study was conducted among ten schools sampled and categorized by neighbourhood socio-economic index. A questionnaire investigating physical, verbal and indirect bullying, observers role, prosociality and resiliency in bullying phenomena was administered before and after a formative cascade-training intervention on teachers of the selected classes. 428 students participated the study (70.8% response rate). A decrease in the bullying episodes after the intervention carried out was reported by students in all areas explored. The verbal bullying was the one that demonstrated the most significant decrease, together with physical bullying and observer area. In particular, a statistically significant decrease was reported for students of schools with an intermediate socioeconomic level. The encouraging results obtained in reducing bullying episodes, together with its low cost of human and economic resources, could suggest the research extension on a regional/national scale.