• In the Summer of 2009, Virginia Tech undergraduate Shane McCarty and VT Alum Taris Mullins (2009) developed an intervention program to reduce bullying behavior, increase compassion, and increase belonging in elementary schools.
• In the Fall of 2009, William Halley Elementary School (Fairfax, Va) assisted with survey development and program enhancement ideas to pilot the first ever Actively Caring For Elementary Schools Program: a bullying prevention initiative.
• In the Spring of 2010, Tuckahoe Elementary School (Arlington, Va) became the second school to pilot the Actively Caring program. Shane McCarty spoke to more than 150 Fourth and Fifth grade students about the movement as a kickoff for the school’s program.
• In the Fall of 2010, a full-scale bullying study will occur to measure the behavior and attitude change in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students with weekly self-reports. Currently, three schools have committed with dozens interested in a September 2010 study and we only have space for a few more as part of our multiple baseline design. (please contact Shane, smac@vt.edu if you are interested in learning more about how to participate.)

Bullying is the most common form of violence in our society; between 15% and 30% of students are bullies or victims” (Cohn & Canter, 2002). Acts of bullying have had catastrophic events and some have labeled it a serious epidemic. Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus defines bullying as when a person is “exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons.” He defines negative action as “when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways.”

In response, the Actively Caring For Elementary Schools Bullying-Prevention Program has been created with the hope of decreasing bullying occurrences as well as increasing belonging and compassion in kids. Research has shown that as little as one month of daily circle sessions with second graders who share observations of prosocial actions they or classmates have carried out that day can double the number of prosocial actions independently observed in classrooms, hallways, and cafeteria (Honig & Pollack, 1990) in comparison with a randomly chosen classroom that did not implement this daily program.

Our research program consists of four parts:

• the writing of caring stories
• reading of caring stories
• selection of two students to wear the wristband as the Actively Caring Heroes of the Day
• rewarding all students who perform atleast one act of caring with a band to keep

Students are looking for Actively Caring behavior (i.e. any behavior that goes beyond the call of duty to help others) in the classroom and writing caring stories on a note card if they see a classmate do something kind or caring. The teacher reads a few caring stories at the beginning of each day and chooses the kind student and observer of the kind act to wear the Actively Caring wristbands for the day. After every student in the classroom has worn the wristband once, everyone in the class will get a band to wear permanently. We believe that our proactive intervention can increase one’s ability to actively care and reduce the bystander effect as to increase the 25% of fourth graders and 22% of fifth graders (Olweus, 2009) who say they “often” or “almost always” stop bullying, to a number much higher and significant.

Refer someone interested in bullying prevention to us, we want to help!

Request the ActivelyCaringBullingPreventionProgram.pdf and more information by emailing smac@vt.edu.