Gower Amy L, Cousin Molly, Borowsky Iris W
Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, 717 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, 1337 South Cesar E Chavez Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53204.
J Sch Health. 2017 Mar;87(3):174-181. doi: 10.1111/josh.12480.
Although nearly all states in the United States require school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies, little research examines the effect of these policies on student bullying and health. Using a statewide sample, we investigated associations between the quality of school district anti-bullying policies and student bullying involvement and adjustment.
School district anti-bullying policies (N = 208) were coded for their quality based on established criteria. District-level data were combined with student reports of bullying involvement, emotional distress, and school connectedness from a state surveillance survey of 6th, 9th, and 12th grade students (N = 93,437).
Results indicated that policy quality was positively related to bullying victimization. Furthermore, students reporting frequent perpetration/victimization who also attended districts with high-quality policies reported more emotional distress and less school connectedness compared with students attending districts with low quality policies. Although statistically significant, the magnitude of these associations was small.
Having a high-quality school district anti-bullying policy is not sufficient to reduce bullying and protect bullying-involved young people. Future studies examining policy implementation will inform best practices in bullying prevention.
尽管美国几乎所有州都要求学区采用反欺凌政策，但很少有研究考察这些政策对学生欺凌行为和健康的影响。我们使用一个全州范围的样本，调查了学区反欺凌政策的质量与学生欺凌行为参与度及适应情况之间的关联。
根据既定标准对学区反欺凌政策（N = 208）的质量进行编码。将学区层面的数据与来自对6年级、9年级和12年级学生的州监测调查（N = 93,437）中有关学生欺凌行为参与度、情绪困扰和学校归属感的报告相结合。
结果表明，政策质量与受欺凌情况呈正相关。此外，与就读于政策质量低的学区的学生相比，那些报告经常实施欺凌/受欺凌且就读于政策质量高的学区的学生报告了更多的情绪困扰和更低的学校归属感。尽管这些关联在统计学上具有显著性，但关联程度较小。
拥有高质量的学区反欺凌政策不足以减少欺凌行为并保护受欺凌的青少年。未来关于政策实施的研究将为预防欺凌的最佳实践提供信息。
