Bullying is a concerning worldwide public social, mental and physical health risk and carries many adverse and long-term consequences, including depression, anxiety and psychological maladjustment. Bullying occurs regularly in most school settings, with many children frequently observing some form of bullying at school. School based victimisation is associated with increased school absence and poorer academic attainment. Chapter one explores existing literature on bullying, including definitions, categories, roles, risks and consequences, prevalence and age-related prevalence. Chapter 2 discusses legal requirements
on schools to have an antibullying policy that sets out their preventive and reactive work and includes an overview of the legislation, government guidance, and common school practice in the UK. Chapter 3 reports on the implementation of the KiVa, the Finnish school-based antibullying programme, delivered in Key Stage 2 [aged 7 to 11 years] of UK primary schools. First, it describes the baseline characteristics of approximately 12,000 pupils prior to KiVa implementation, reporting the baseline prevalence of victim, bully, and bully-victim status and then evaluates the outcomes and costs for 41 early implementer schools after one year of implementation. Chapter 4 describes the development, theoretical foundations, and supporting Finnish and International evidence for the KiVa programme, and the introduction of KiVa to the UK. Chapter 5 presents a case study of KiVa in a UK primary school and
lessons learned from implementation. The final chapter, chapter 6, provides a summary of the research findings and discusses their implications, strengths, limitations, and future directions for research and implementation of the KiVa antibullying programme.