Abstract

There are few intervention programs designed for reducing bullying in the classrooms. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of an intervention program based on the principles of applied behavior analysis to reduce bullying in the classroom. The program was designed to train elementary school teachers in the application of eight behavioral techniques (i.e., stimuli control, cost of response, reinforcing alternative responses, self-control of anger, group contingencies, task analysis, monitoring, and shaping). Eight teachers from three public schools were trained and they implemented the program during a whole school year. Those teachers had 223 students. From that total 28 were identified as bullies and 28 as victims. The bullying behavior of those 28 children as well as the disruptive behaviors of the 223 students were measured pre, during and post treatment. Results showed that the intervention program was successful in reducing bullying as well as disruptive behaviors. The program was especially effective in reducing antisocial behavior.