INitiating Change Locally in bUllyIng and aggression through the School EnVironment

Current primary outcome as of 10/01/2012

1. The primary outcome of this pilot trial is feasibility of recruitment and delivery of the intervention. Analysis of process not outcome data will be the primary focus of this pilot trial in order to assess whether it would be appropriate to continue to a full trial.
2. Indicative primary outcome measure being field-tested in this pilot trial: A future full trial will use aggressive behaviour (physical and/or emotional) as its primary outcome. We include bullying (i.e. repetitive behaviour) within this, and we will measure all aggressive behaviours, both in and out- of-school time. We will use this pilot study to examine the properties (response rates and psychometric properties) of exiting instruments that cover
2.1 physical violence,
2.2 emotional abuse (including victimisation) and/or
2.3 provoking or disrupting behaviours not associated with actual violence.

We will adapt and pilot the following two scales:
3. The Ayan Aba Youth Project (AAYP) sub-scale on aggressive behaviours. We are piloting the following 4- items: Have you ever, or in the past 3 months,
3.1 threatened to beat someone up, not including your brothers and sisters?
3.2 threatened to beat up your brothers and sisters?
3.3 threatened to cut, stab or shoot someone?
3.4 cut or stabbed someone?

Each item is scored 0-3; total score of 12.

4. The Gatehouse Bullying Scale (GBS) is a short tool to measure the occurrence of victimisation and bullying in schools. The GBS focuses on the experience of bullying and thus potentially complements the AAYP scale. The scale has 12 items, and asks about being the subject of recent
4.1 teasing and name calling,
4.2 rumours,
4.3 being left out of things and
4.4 physical threats or actual violence from other students.

Each section asks about the recent experience of that type of bullying (yes or no), how often it occurred, and how upset the student was by each type of bullying. Unlike other scales which generally ask about bullying in the last year, the GBS asks about recent occurrence of bullying (last 3 months) and is therefore able to assess changes within a school year. As well as a global estimate of bullying the GBS provides estimates of two covert and two overt types of bullying which can be useful for schools to better plan interventions dealing with school bullying.

Previous primary outcome
Aggressive behaviour (physical and/or emotional) data will be collected via student surveys. We will use this pilot study to examine the properties (response rates and psychometric properties) of a number of validated instruments including the Gatehouse Bullying Scale, the Ayan Aba Youth Project anti-social behaviour questions and the Self Report of Delinquency Scale. These cover:
1. Physical violence towards peers or staff
2. Emotional abuse of peers or staff (including victimisation)
3. Provoking or disrupting behaviours not associated with actual violence
4. Cyberbullying

We include bullying (i.e. repetitive behaviour) within this outcome. Note that we will measure all aggressive behaviour, both in and out-of-school time.

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The following information will be collected via student surveys:
1. Quality of life using the 23-item Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 and the Child Health Utility 9D measure.
2. Psychological distress using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a brief screening instrument for detecting behavioural, emotional and peer problems and pro-social strengths in children and adolescents
3. Well-being using short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental + Emotional Wellbeing measure (WEMEWB)
4. Substance use (point prevalence and recent use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs)
5. NHS use based on self-reported use of NHS services (primary care, A & E, other) in the past year.
6. Contact with police/justice system based on self-report of whether any contact with police or criminal justice system in the past 12 months etc.
7. School disciplinary policies and school environment: Student report of school fairness, management, disciplinary policies, safety and environment

These data collected via student surveys will be supplement by additional outcome data. Firstly, we will obtain data on teachers' experiences of violence, bullying, school-safety, job satisfaction and work-related stress through surveys of school staff. Secondly, additional routinely-collected data on each schools attendance rates, exclusion rates (fixed term and permanent), teacher absence, incident reports etc. will be used.

Qualitative data: Interviews with intervention facilitators (n=3) and action-team members (n=4 per school), as well as focus-group discussions (FGDs) with intervention-school staff (n=2 FGDs/10 staff per school) and students (n=2 FGDs/10 students per school) will be used to examine feasibility, acceptability, and context. Interviews with control-school senior leadership team members (n=2 per school) and FGDs with staff (n=1 FGD/5 staff per school) will examine their policies and practices regarding discipline, violence etc. We will use purposive sampling across our schools to ensure diversity of staff (role, seniority and involvement in training/ other specific intervention elements) and students (age, gender and involvement). Qualitative data will be entered into the data analysis package NVivo, to manage and code data.