Evaluating the effectiveness of a social skills training(SST) programme for victims of bullying

Abstract

Several programmes have been developed to help support victimsof bullying, but few have been formally evaluated. On the basisof previous research and from a review of existing programmes, aSocial Skills Training (SST) Programme was developed for victimsof bullying, and the effectiveness of this intervention was evaluated.Twenty-eight children (aged nine to 11 years) took part in the SST Programme – 15in the experimental group and 13 in the waiting-list control group.A Peer Nomination Inventory was used to assess social skillsproblems, peer victimization and friendship/peer acceptance.In addition, a number of psycho­social adjustment variables(i.e. depression, anxiety, self-esteem) were assessed, using self-report.The measures were completed at three time points over the courseof an academic year. It was found that there was an increase in ‘globalself-worth’ (i.e. self-esteem) for the experimental group(compared to the control group). However, there were no other significantimprovements, e.g. in terms of social skills problems or victim status.These findings have important implications for interventions totackle the negative effects associated with bullying in schools.