Evaluating Research on Human Development

KiVa Anti-bullying Programme
Name
Institution / Affiliation
KiVan anti-bullying program
Globally, bullying is a significant problem in schools – from primary to university level. According to the National Bullying Prevention Center (2020), one in every five students report bullying, including physical and verbal mistreatment. Learners who experience bullying are at a high risk of anxiety, lower academic performance, depression, dropping out of school, and sleeping difficulties (Garandeau et al., 2014). Besides, such students are at greater risk of mental health and behavior problems such as low self-esteem (Nocentini & Menesini, 2016). Different anti-bullying interventions, such as KiVa, have been developed to counter bullying in schools.
KiVa is an evidence-based approach established by the University of Turku, Finland, to prevent bullying in comprehensive schools. Like any other country, Finland has recorded high instances of bullying and harassment in schools. In response, KiVa anti-bullying program was developed in 2006 to minimize victimization and bullying in the Finnish comprehensive schools (Garandeau et al., 2014). The program sought to increase empathy towards victims, raise awareness on the impacts of bullying, improve coping mechanisms to bullying among victimized children, and stimulate approaches to support victims' and children's self-efficacy to use those strategies (Garandeau et al., 2014). In reality, the program has shown substantial impacts on reducing bullying in schools since its inception. For this reason, the program has been adopted by other countries such as Chile, Europe, New Zealand, and South America. 
Kiva is a whole school intermediation that helps teachers and students to prevent and minimize instances of bullying. It is an approach that uses a multidimensional methodology to address school-level and individual classroom factors that contribute to victimization and bullying (Garandeau et al., 2014). The program is based on the theoretical framework that bullying is often a result of group practice. Thus said, the program encompasses ten classes that are delivered in twenty hours by classroom teachers (Salmivalli & Poskiparta, 2012). In every lesson, learners participate in group work, debates, and role-playing exercises. Besides, students watch short videos about bullying to improve their knowledge of bullying. Every lesson is developed towards a key subject, and one rule is connected with that theme, which the class adopts as a class rule after the complete delivery of the lesson. Consequently, all the rules are combined into a contract at the end of the year, and students are required to sign and abide by the rules (Salmivalli & Poskiparta, 2012). It is also worth noting that the program considers the teachers as role models in preventing bullying and should always stand against these vices. 
On the other hand, the program provides teachers with a standard plan on how much time should be spent on each theme. However, the teacher and schools have the liberty to organize the themes around the year. Besides, instructions and syllabuses are developed to target specific learners, with versions ranging from grades one–Three, four-six, and seven –nin...