141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

291137
A partnership to create an anti-bullying program in two inner city schools: Evaluating academic and health outcomes

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Joan Kub, PhD PHCNS, BC , Department of Community Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD
Sara Groves, DrPH, PHCNS, BC , Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Elizabeth Sloand, PhD, RN , Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD
Pawla Wenga, BSN , JHU, owings Mills MD 21117, MD
Lindsey Hunt, BSN , JHU, Baltimore, MD
Nicole Johnson , Elev8 Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
Bullying among elementary school age children includes physical, psychological and/or verbal behaviors that are repeated and involve an intention to harm. Bullying has particular relevance to health, academic outcomes, and school climate. Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, in partnership with Elev8,(an initiative of East Baltimore Development Inc), and two elementary public schools is conducting an anti-bullying program focused on 5th graders. The aims of the presentation are: 1) briefly describe the implementation of the program; 2) to measure the effectiveness of the anti-bullying program on outcomes (absenteeism, school and health self reports)among 5th grade students and to 3)describe teachers' perceptions of the relationship of bullying behavior to the academic success of children and school climate. The study is a quasi-experimental pretest, post test control group design with one school receiving the anti-bullying program and the comparison school receiving a delayed intervention. The measures include: Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire for Students and a self report health status instrument, CHIP-Child Edition. Focus groups were conducted with two groups of teachers. Absenteeism data will be collected from school records. The prevalence of bullying behaviors among fifth graders in one school (N=23) is 30% for those reporting being bullied once to several times per week and 17% reporting bullying others 2-3 times per month to several times per week. This presentation examines the relationship between bullying and academic issues, an important linkage in developing effective school based programs in partnerships between public health nurses, community organizations and educational institutions.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related nursing
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the partnership between Elev8, a school of nursing, and two inner city schools in the creation of an anti-bullying program targeted to 5th graders. Describe bullying and bystander behaviors of students. Describe academic and health indicators of students participating in the program.

Keywords: School-Based Programs, Public Health Nursing, Outcomes

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a faculty member at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing with joint appointments in the School of Medicine and Public Health. My faculty practice is located in schools in Baltimore. I have been focusing and working on developing anti-bullying behaviors among children in schools for the past 6-8 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.