School-Based Mentoring for Bullied Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT BODY:
Children who are chronically bullied at school tend to experience school-related difficulties and social and emotional problems during childhood and beyond (Card & Hodges, 2008; Hawker & Boulton, 2000). Universal prevention programs can reduce the overall incidence of school bullying if faithfully implemented. Far less is known about selective interventions for individually bullied children. Lunch Buddy (LB) mentoring is a school-based selective intervention (Cavell et al. 2009; Elledge et al. 2010). Elledge et al. (2010) paired bullied children with LB mentors who visited twice/week during lunchtime; mentored children were perceived by peers as less victimized compared to matched controls attending a different school. Elledge et al. speculated that LB mentoring works via changes in lunchtime peer relationships.
            In this paper, we report results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of LB mentoring for bullied children. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT to examine the benefits of school-based mentoring for bullied children.

Method

Participants

            Participants were 65 third- and fifth-graders from 9 elementary schools. Children had been nominated by teachers as being bullied and had met or exceeded the recommended cutoff for bullied children on the global item of Olweus Bully-Victim Questionnaire (“2 to 3 times a month”). Children were randomly assigned to the LB group or the no-mentoring group.

Lunch Buddy Mentoring

Children in the Lunch Buddy Mentoring program were paired with a college student mentor for one semester who visited twice weekly at scheduled lunch times. All mentors participated in a 2-hour training that emphasized the goal of enhancing children’s lunchtime peer relationships. Mentors sat with target children and peers at the lunch table and completed log sheets after each visit. 

Measures

Peer victimization. Children’s self-reported victimization was assessed using a 9-item scale adapted from the School Experiences Questionnaire (Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004). Teachers rated each child on the extent to which they experienced physical, verbal, and relational victimization.

Internalizing symptoms. Children’s self-reported internalizing symptom were assessed using the Revised Children Anxiety and Depression Scale (Chorpita, Yim, Moffit, Umemoto, & Francis, 2000) and teachers completed the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach & Rescrola, 2001).

Social competence. The Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC; Harter, 1985) was used to assess children’s self-perceived competence. Teachers completed a parallel version.

Academic engagement. Children and teachers completed a measure of teacher-student relationship quality and teachers reported on school attendance and grades.

Harm and satisfaction. Children and teachers completed a measure of perceived harm associated with LB mentoring and teachers rated their satisfaction with the program.

Procedures

            Child and teacher measures were completed at school. Assessments occurred prior to randomization (early spring), immediately following mentoring (late spring), and at the end of the following fall semester.