School culture
Bullying is common, but that doesn’t mean it’s an inevitable part of school life. A supportive, inclusive school environment, support from peers and family, and strong student social skills and wellbeing help to prevent bullying. Parents and carers, schools and students all play a role in preventing bullying.
Everyone plays a role in creating a supportive and inclusive school culture.
Preventative factors work by supporting every part of school culture, from individual students to the wider school community. To prevent bullying effectively, schools and families need to work together to create a supportive, inclusive environment. There needs to be clear behaviour guidelines that that discourage aggression and promote empathy.1 Together, schools and families can create a unified approach that helps prevent bullying and ensures a quick and effective response if bullying does happen.
Whole-school approaches
Schools can reduce the likelihood of bullying through preventative factors. This works best as part of a whole-school approach to preventing and responding to bullying.2 Whole-school approaches are most successful when they include:
- strengthening feelings of school belonging by building a respectful, welcoming and accepting school culture
- positive student and teacher relationships
- student participation in activities, decision-making and mentoring programs that allow students to contribute to the school community and build a sense of belonging
- professional development for educators to make sure they understand what bullying is, including its impacts and how to respond if it happens
- wellbeing which supports students in building relationships, developing social, emotional and leadership skills, promoting empathy and inclusivity, and supporting general health and wellbeing
- programs, interventions and resources that address bullying and its risk factors, including conflict resolution, respectful relationships, and social and emotional learning
- family–school partnerships that involve parents and carers in school activities and decision-making to create a sense of community and school belonging in students
- a clear understanding across the whole school community of what bullying is
- clearly communicated student behaviour expectations
- clear school policies about how to respond to bullying.
Addressing risk factors with whole-school prevention
There are a range of preventative approaches that can be used to address school risk factors.
School risk factors
- Low school belonging
- Low inclusivity
- Poor student–teacher relationships
- Low or no bullying-related professional development for teachers
- Low or no family–school partnerships
- Poor school-wide understanding of bullying
- Low student wellbeing
- No ongoing preventative bullying programs
- An unsafe school environment
- Unclear behaviour expectations
School preventative approaches
- Focusing on school belonging
- Creating an inclusive environment
- Supporting positive student–teacher relationships
- Providing ongoing bullying-related professional development for teachers
- Creating positive family–school partnerships
- Creating a school-wide understanding of bullying
- Prioritising student wellbeing
- Running ongoing preventative bullying programs
- Supporting a safe school environment
- Setting clear behaviour expectations
- Having clear bullying policies
The Australian Student Wellbeing Framework supports whole-school approaches to student wellbeing and bullying prevention.
Explore the key principles and how they can be used by schools here.
- Cross, D., Runions, K.C., & Pearce, N. (2021). Friendly schools’ bullying prevention research: Implications for school counsellors. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 31(2), 146–158. doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2021.19; Konishi, C., Miyazaki, Y., Hymel, S., & Waterhouse, T. (2017). Investigating associations between school climate and bullying in secondary schools: Multilevel contextual effects modeling. School Psychology International, 38(3), 240–263. doi.org/10.1177/0143034316688730
- Cross, D., Runions, K.C., Shaw, T., Wong, J.W.Y., Campbell, M., Pearce, N., Burns, S., Lester, L., Barnes, A., & Resnicow, K. (2019). Friendly schools universal bullying prevention intervention: Effectiveness with secondary school students. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 1(1), 45–57. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42380-018-0004-z; Zych, I., Farrington, D.P., & Ttofi, M.M. (2019). Protective factors against bullying and cyberbullying: A systematic review of meta-analyses. Aggression and violent behaviour, 45, 4–19; Espelage, D.L., Van Ryzin, M.J., & Holt, M.K. (2018). Trajectories of bully perpetration across early adolescence: Static risk factors, dynamic covariates, and longitudinal outcomes. Psychology of Violence, 8(2), 141–150. doi.org/10.1037/vio0000095