Scaling and Disseminating Brief Bullying Prevention Programming: Strengths, Challenges, & Considerations

Peer bullying occurs frequently among middle school youth, negatively impacting students and the broader school climate. However, during these years there is a gap in translating empirically supported prevention science into school-based practices. This paper describes how the evidence-based Free2B bullying prevention multi-media assembly was disseminated by a team of educators, researchers, and technologists to over 14,000 students in 40 middle schools across the state. This dissemination and scaling effort was conducted in partnership with the state's government officials and Office of Safe Schools in order to ensure that each school and district across the state had equal access in applying for the programming. Over half of participating students expressed concerns about school bullying, with 36% reporting victimization and 17% reporting perpetration of bullying in the past month. Significant improvements were found in problem-solving knowledge, confidence in being a positive bystander, and sympathy for peer victims. We discuss gender and community setting differences (urban, suburban, rural) in the findings, implications for dissemination and implementation science, and school psychologists' role in disseminating bullying prevention practices.