European Project on Bullying and Cyberbullying Granted by Daphne II Programme

Daphne II (2004–2008) is a very wide program which aims at supporting organizations that develop measures and actions to prevent or to combat all types of violence against children, young people, and women, and to protect the victims and groups at risk. One project granted by the Daphne II programme from February 2007 to February 2009 was: ‘‘An investigation into forms of peer-peer bullying at school in preadolescent and adolescent groups: new instruments and preventing strategies’’. This has been coordinated by an Italian group (Genta, Brighi, and Guarini, University of Bologna) involving different European Countries (English group: Smith, Thompson, and Tippett, Goldsmiths, University of London; Spanish group: Ortega, Mora-Merchan, and Calmaestra, University of Cordoba; Finnish group: Salmivalli and Po¨yho¨nen, University of Turku; and second Italian group: Buccoliero and Promeco- Ferrara) and a nonEuropean Country as an associate partner (Bosnia-Herzegovina group: Canevaro, Malaguti, and Tomic, University of Bologna and Hatibovic, University of Tuzla). This project aimed at investigating forms of school bullying and cyberbullying and the social dynamics in 12–16- year-old boys and girls, with a particular emphasis on cyberbullying, and their impact on prosocial peer-peer strategies, as well as on the nature and predictors of bystanding and defending behaviors toward victimized peers. The project consisted of three main activities: (1) Creation of new tools for assessing bullying, cyberbullying, and aggressive dynamics in the peer group and examination of the impact of forms of prosocial behavior and participant roles (Genta, Berdondini, Brighi, & Guarini, 2009). The international team has jointly created a new questionnaire which focuses on four main types of bullying (direct bullying, indirect bullying, bullying via mobile, and bullying via Internet) and the reactions of victims and bystanders, together with questions about school climate (perception of safety and well-being at school, quality of relationships among peers and peers-adults). The questionnaire includes questions on feelings of loneliness, and perceived self-esteem, and adopting revised and shortened versions of validated questionnaires (Melotti, Corsano & Scarpuzzi, 2006). (2) Comparison among data collected in different countries with the same theoretical and methodological background. After a piloting phase in each of the countries, the researchers collected a total sample of 6,500 students, from three age levels: 12–13; 14–15; and 16– 17 years from equivalent school levels. (3) Preparation of specific educational materials in order to increase the awareness of teachers, parents, and policymakers on cyberbullying: educational videos on bullying and cyberbullying, printed materials like leaflets and pamphlets, books (Genta, Brighi, & Guarini, 2009), and activation of a website (www.bullyingand cyber.net); a public information campaign open to all the citizens disseminating the results of the study. The research has established that forms of cyberbullying are Europe wide, with high percentages especially in those countries where a global and systematic policy is still lacking (i.e., Italy and Bosnia-Herzegovina), pointing out the necessity to create shared national guidelines for intervention and for devising projects for teacher training. In parallel, it seems urgent to involve parents too in actions of sensitization on bullying and cyberbullying, the latter an underestimated problem by parents. The research teams are now involved in their own countries, to devise intervention strategies tailored to specific cultural contexts. For this objective, good suggestions will come also from qualitative data, which were collected in Italy and Bosnia-Herzegovina using focus group methodology, with content analysis of the videotaped sessions. Parallel to researchers’ activity, our project has invol...