Introduction

Projects to reduce bullying have had some notable successes, both at local level (e.g. Smith and Sharp, 1994) and in local evaluations of national programmes (e.g. Olweus, 1993, Roland, 2000; Roland and Munthe, 1997). However, the gains have often been short term. When they have been maintained at two-year follow-up, as in the project in Bergen, Norway, it seems probable that progress was maintained by the researchers visiting schools in the follow-up period to give them feedback and to discuss further work with staff (Olweus, 1991, 1993; Roland, 2000; Roland and Munthe, 1997). While adopting a range of procedures, the primary focus of these projects was on bullying as a psychosocial problem. They sought to raise awareness of it among pupils and teachers, to convince everyone in the school community that it was unacceptable, and to describe methods to stop ongoing bullying. The 1996–97 project in Norway (Roland, 2000; Roland and Munthe, 1997) broadened the scope to emphasise the quality of day-to-day classroom management.

The mainly bullying-focused approach described above is consistent with a large body of literature, which has investigated characteristics of bullies and their victims. Thus Olweus (1993) argued that bullying results from adverse home conditions, which create a stable aggressive trait within some pupils. Crick and Dodge (1994) saw a social-skills deficit as the origin of bullying.