Speakers
Description
In 2021, additions to the Kindergarten Act were implemented in Norway, ensuring all children the right to a safe and sound kindergarten environment. According to this act, Norwegian Early Childhood Educational and Care Centers (ECECs) are mandated to systematically prevent bullying and social exclusion, including adopting a zero-tolerance for violations such as exclusion, bullying, violence, discrimination, and harassment. Although knowledge about bullying in this age group is limited, a growing body of research suggests that bullying does occur also between peers in ECEC and that experiencing bullying at an early age is associated with negative consequences later in life. Currently there are few evidence-based interventions directly targeting bullying among peers in ECECs. The Be-Prox program, developed for Swiss kindergartens to prevent and handle negative behavior and bullying has been adapted to the Norwegian context in a previous pilot study.
In close collaboration between two municipalities, research and educational institutions in Norway, this project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Be-Prox in a cluster randomized controlled trial, including evaluation of the process, implementation and cost-effectiveness analyses. If proven effective, Be-Prox can be offered to ECECs nationwide as evidence-based practice to prevent and handle negative behavior and bullying among peers in Norwegian ECECs.
Additional field for symposia
Chair/co-chair details
Chair: Ingrid Kvestad, Regional Center for Child Mental Health and Welfare, West, NORCE Norwegian Research Center
Co-chair: Kyrre Breivik, Regional Center for Child Mental Health and Welfare, West, NORCE Norwegian Research Center
1) The Be-Prox program to prevent and handle negative behavior and bullying among peers in an Early Childhood Educational and Care context.
Morten Haaland (presenter), Anita Skogstrand, & Janne Evertsen
The Bernese Program against Victimization in Kindergarten and Elementary School (Be-Prox) was developed by Professor Françoise Alsaker at the University of Bern. The Be-Prox program has since 2015 been adapted to the Norwegian Early Childhood Educational and Care (ECEC) context and legislation. In Norway, we use a train-the-trainer model, allowing municipalities to own the concept and implement the program locally.
Drawing from an ecological approach and focusing on the quality and context of the child’s environment, the Be-Prox program aims to lower the levels of bullying in ECECs through a positive environment, characterized by shared values and beliefs about behavior among children and personnel. Fostering an adult authoritative approach, the focus is to increase understanding and skills in managing bullying among personnel and encourage positive interactions between the children. The goal is to prevent occurrences of negative behavior and bullying at an early stage, talk about bullying and victimization, strengthen prosocial resources in the group, and intervene when negative behavior and bullying occur.
A core principle of the Be-Prox program is that all employees must work together to meet this goal. All personnel working in ECECs independent of their profession are therefore the main target group for the program and have access to material and resources available on the program website. A handbook introducing the six program modules and a management tool to ensure fidelity and proper implementation have been developed for the Norwegian context.
2) The effect of the Be-Prox program to prevent and handle negative behavior among peers in Norwegian Early Childhood and Educational Care Centers.
Ingrid Kvestad (presenter), Kyrre Breivik, Geraldine Mabille, Henriette Kyrrestad & Merete Aasheim
This cluster randomized trial measured the effect of the Be-Prox program on negative behavior and bullying in 38 Norwegian Early Childhood Educational and Care Centers (ECECs). Data was collected in 708 children (3-5 years, 49.4% female). Overall, there were no significant effect of the Be-Prox program on the frequency of negative acts children were exposed to (victimization) (z = -1.31, p = .19) or exposed peers to (perpetration) (z = -0.82, p = .41), but lower odds of being victimized “2-3 times a month” or more in the intervention group (OR:0.40, p = .019). After being introduced to the Be-Prox program an estimated 20% fewer children experienced physical negative acts in intervention ECECs compared to control. There were significant interaction effects with age but not gender. For both victimization and perpetration, the intervention was associated with a larger decrease in the negative acts for older children than for younger children. In other words, results suggest the Be-Prox program to be particularly effectful in reducing negative behavior between children 4-5 years old in the Norwegian ECECs context.
3) Successful intervention implementation - compliance to the Be-Prox program when delivered to Norwegian Early Childhood and Educational Care Centers
Merete Aasheim (presenter), Josefine Jonsson, Geraldine Mabille, Henriette Kyrrestad, Monica Martinussen & Ingrid Kvestad
Employees at the educational and psychological counselling service in the municipalities were trained to be Be-Prox instructors through a 6-days training (38-40 hours). The trained instructors (in pairs of two) were responsible for training the Early Childhood Education and Care Centers (ECECs) personnel over a 9-month period through 6 modules (16-18 hours). Between modules, the ECEC personnel were instructed to practice program activities with the children, and to report on their experiences at the start of the following module. Throughout the intervention period, the instructors received supervision (digital) from the program providers to ensure compliance to program implementation.
After each module, compliance to the program components was assessed through checklists completed by the instructors, and satisfaction with the training received was evaluated by the ECEC personnel. The instructors evaluated to what extent they had covered the key components described in the Be-Prox manual, with mean answers per module ranging from 5.63 to 6.03 (on a 7-point scale). The instructors also evaluated to what extent the ECEC personnel had managed to practice program activities between modules, with mean answers per module ranging from 4.78 to 5.48 (on a 7-point scale). Satisfaction of the ECEC personnel with the training received in the different modules ranged from 4.16 to 4.33 (on a 5-point scale). A summary evaluation conducted after the 6 modules were ended indicated that 83% of the ECEC personnel had attended 5 training modules or more. We will also present results from preliminary analyses examining how the ECEC personnel’s evaluation of the usefulness of the training received relates to their expectations about whether the Be-Prox program can help reduce bullying in their kindergarten.
4) Practical experiences of personnel working with the Be-Prox program in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care Centers – A qualitative study
Josefine Jonsson (presenter), Geraldine Mabille, Henriette Kyrrestad, Ingrid Kvestad, Monica Martinussen & Merete Aasheim
An essential component to the delivery, effectiveness, and implementation of Be-Prox is the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) personnel. Previous research on school- and kindergarten interventions shows that there is a gap between methodological intentions and what gets realized in practice. Factors such as practical applicability of method components, personnels’ attitudes towards the intervention and organizational support affect the implementation process. The goal of this qualitative study is to better understand the practical experiences of ECEC personnel working with and delivering Be-Prox in the ECEC context through the following research questions; What are the personnels’ experiences of working with Be-Prox as a mean to prevent and manage bullying in their kindergartens? What has influenced and affected the practical work with Be-Prox? This qualitative study is a part of a mixed method study, with an overarching aim to explore facilitators and barriers to implementing Be-Prox in kindergartens.
The qualitative data consists of semi-structured individual interviews with ECEC personnel. The interview data have been transcribed and are currently being analyzed using thematic analysis. Sentences containing meaningful units are identified, coded, and thematized to illustrate patterns of shared meaning and experiences across the dataset. Results will provide knowledge of personnel experiences and perception related to structured preventive work targeting peer bullying in ECECs. The results are expected to offer suggestions of possible improvements to make to the Be-Prox program, and to contribute to the body of research related to implementation barriers and facilitators in the Norwegian ECEC context.
5) The cost-effectiveness of implementing the Be-Prox program in Norwegian municipalities
Renira Corinne Angeles (presenter), Ingrid Kvestad, Merete Aasheim & Egil Kjerstad
Experience of bullying during childhood have long-term effects such as lower probability of employment, mental health problems as adults, and more frequent use of health care service compared to adults who have not experienced bullying in early childhood, causing substantial societal costs. Thus, due to these consequences, several anti-bullying programs has been carried out in schools, with evidence of improvements for the victims. Further, some of the school-based programs has proven cost-effectiveness. Recently, researchers have also emphasized prevention of bullying at pre-school level, with growing empirical evidence of effectiveness. Yet, there are no economic evaluations of anti-bullying interventions at the Early Childhood Educational and Care (ECEC) level.
This study aims to investigate if the Be-Prox intervention is cost-effective compared to standard practice in ECECs. The economic evaluation will consist of a cost-effectiveness analysis from a societal, municipal and ECEC perspective. Further, the cost-effectiveness analysis will use the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) to estimate the cost per gained benefit from a societal, municipal and ECEC perspective. The analysis will use the results from the effectiveness study of Be-Prox, and bottom-up data collection of costs related to the Be-Prox intervention.
The economic evaluation of Be-Prox will benefit the society, municipality, ECECs, and higher-level decision-makers. The result from the economic analysis empowers decision makers to design and implement policies that mitigate societal challenges directly related to bullying at pre-school level.
Keywords
Negative acts; bullying; ECEC; evidence-based practice; Be-Prox program
| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Scientific |
|---|---|
| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Mixed method study |
