Strategic Clarity on Different Prevention Levels of School Bullying and Violence: Rethinking Peer Defenders and Selected Prevention

ABSTRACT

While there is growing recognition of the need to distinguish between universal, selected, and indicated prevention levels in school bullying and violence research, this more nuanced focus is far from being systematically applied in key research studies in this area internationally. This article raises concerns about the need for such a differentiated focus to address issues of bullying perpetrators’ different motivations to underpin critique of a peer defenders model. Such a peer defenders model conflates moderate risk (selected prevention) level of perpetrators’ motivations with those of chronic need (indicated prevention). A theoretical framework for selected prevention focusing on minority identity and discriminatory bullying is developed to incorporate a focus on inclusive systems and system blockage, building on social-ecological systems theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Selected prevention
• indicated prevention
• peer defenders
• KiVa
• discriminatory bullying

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on an independent report funded by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.

Notes on contributors

Paul Downes

Dr. Paul Downes is Associate Professor of Education (Psychology) and Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, Dublin City University, Ireland. He has been involved in various expert advisory roles for the European Commission, including for its School Policy Working Groups. A Visiting Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2017) and University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre (2011), he is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the European Commission’s Network of Experts on the Social Aspects of Education and Training (NESET) (2014–19).

Carmel Cefai

Dr. Carmel Cefai is Director of the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, at the University of Malta. He was a visiting fellow at the School of Education, University of Leicester, UK, Honorary Visiting Scholar at Flinders University, Australia, and Fulbright Scholar at the Prevention Research Center at Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is joint founding honorary chair of the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence (ENSEC).