Building Foundations for Friendship: Preventing Bullying Behavior in Preschool

Abstract

Early childhood is an essential time for social-emotional learning and the development of appropriate peer interactions. Preschool children also begin to use more physical and verbal forms of aggression and bullying within their relationships with peers. The Building Foundations for Friendship (BFF) curriculum was designed to teach preschool-aged children appropriate social skills to prevent bullying. The topics discussed in this curriculum include developing friendship skills, identifying various peer interactions, and learning how to appropriately respond to a peer’s aggressive behavior. It was hypothesized that preschool students’ social skills and social behavior would improve after implementation of the BFF curriculum. The participants in this study included 79 preschool students between the ages of 3 and 6. Data were collected pre- and post-intervention. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in social skills and a decrease in problem behavior following intervention. There was not a statistically significant decrease in relational or overt aggression. Implications of the results and future directions are discussed.