The Effects of a Resilience Program on Social Skills, Bullying, and Victimization Among Students in Grades Three Through Six

Bullying has created a negative social dynamic in schools. The continued prevalence of bullying among children has shown the need for research pertaining to prevention. The resilience program studied in this research uniquely emphasizes teaching social resilience skills that may help students to not become bullying victims. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a resilience program on the self-reported social skills, victimization, and bullying among third- through sixth-grade students. This study of the effectiveness of a social and emotional learning framework in bullying prevention was conducted to contribute social and emotional learning research to the bullying prevention literature. This quantitative research investigated the effects of the resilience program via a quasi-experimental design. The sample of 102 third- through sixth-grade students self-reported social skills, bullying, and victimization in a pretest-posttest data collection. Student participants reported social skills in the Social Skills Improvement System Social and Emotional Learning Edition student scale (SSIS SEL). Student participants reported bullying and victimization in the Peer Interactions in Primary School Questionnaire (PIPSQ). This methodology generated descriptive and inferential statistics from students’ reports of social skills, bullying, and victimization before and after an implementation of the resilience program. Mean comparisons of pretests and posttests were conducted via paired samples t tests. Based on the resulting analysis of the resilience program effects on mean differences in social skills, bullying, and victimization, recommendations were made regarding bullying prevention approaches that are available to school districts. Recommendations were also made regarding future bullying prevention research