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Antibullying Program Reduces Malicious Gossip on School Playgrounds

Elementary school students who participated in a three-month anti-bullying program in Seattle schools showed a 72% decrease in malicious gossip.

The study, led by the University of Washington, is the first to show that the widely used Steps to Respect bullying prevention program can curb children’s gossip, an element of playground culture often seen as harmless but capable of causing real harm.

“Gossip is an element of bullying, and it can lead to physical bullying,” says Karin Frey, a research associate professor of educational psychology. “Kids will tell you that gossip is just as painful as physical bullying.”

But teachers tend to not view gossip as a significant form of bullying, Frey says. Since gossip can lead to physical bullying, she and her collaborators investigated whether the program would help suppress teasing, name-calling, rumor-spreading and other ostracizing chitchat.

The study, published in School Psychology Review, showed that having supportive friends and not choosing retaliation when victimized by malicious gossip helped participants in the program avoid further victimization.

Researchers used Palm Pilots to electronically record second-by-second observations of 610 students in grades 3 to 6 at six elementary schools in the Seattle area. Researchers recorded each child’s behavior on the playground for five minutes once a week for 10 weeks in the fall and 10 weeks in the spring.

After observers heard gossip on the playground in the fall, the antibullying program began in one half of the 36 classrooms. During three months, teachers taught Steps to Respect lesson plans that encouraged empathy, taught assertiveness, and emphasized that bullying is not a social norm.

In a questionnaire for students, the researchers measured two factors that influence bullying: beliefs about fighting back against bullies and having supportive friends.

When students’ playground gossip was observed in the spring, children in the Steps to Respect classrooms had 234 fewer instances of gossip per class of 25, or a 72% decrease in gossip among students who had gossiped before participating in the anti-bullying program.

“Gossip is still there, but it’s better,” Frey says. “That’s going to make a difference in the life of a child.”

Kids may mistakenly subscribe to the “don’t get mad, get even,” philosophy. But since victims who retaliate often end up bullied even more, Steps to Respect teaches kids to not fight back. Frey and her coauthors found that gossip victims in the fall who went through Steps to Respect in the winter were less likely to believe in retaliation as a response to bullying, and more likely to avoid being a victim of gossip in the spring.

Having supportive friends also helped gossip victims. “Maybe friends use their assertiveness skills and say, ‘Come on, let’s go,’” Frey says.

Frey said that bystanders are really important in decreasing gossip and bullying, but many times bystanders feel uncomfortable and don’t know what to do. Bystanders’ silence can give a lot of power to bullies, but if bystanders speak up, the bullying stops.

“Stand up straight, look the bully in the eye, and say ‘knock it off,’” Frey says. Friends who encourage victims to retaliate, on the other hand, may inadvertently set victims up for continued bullying, she says.

— Source: University of Washington