Effectiveness of anti-bullying legislation in schools

Background. Anti-bullying legislation has been used as a strategy to prevent bullying but has a limited evidence-base. The goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of Iowa's anti-bullying law in preventing bullying victimization. Method: We evaluated 2005, 2008 and 2010 Iowa Youth Survey data from 6th, 8th, and 11th graders. The independent variable was exposure to the law, where 2005 data were coded as pre-law, 2008 data as immediate post-law, and 2010 data as delayed post-law. The outcome variables were: 1) the frequency of bullying victimization in the last month by form (psychological, verbal, physical, and cyber)and 2) reported frequency in which teachers or adults tried to put a stop to bullying. Generalized Linear Mixed Models were constructed. Results: An increase odds of being bullied was found from pre- to immediate post-law periods, followed by a decreased odds from 2008 to 2010 but not below 2005 pre-law levels. This pattern was consistent across all forms of bullying. For example, the odds of being physically bullied was 28% greater during the immediate post-law compared with pre-law periods, but decreased during the delayed post-law period but not to levels below the pre-law period (OR=1.03). The odds of teacher intervention decreased over time from 3.2 from 2005 (pre-law) to 2.6 in 2010 (post-law). Conclusions: Iowa's anti-bullying policy was related to improved reporting immediately after passing the law, and then an encouraging reduction of bullying during the delayed post-law time period. However,the law did not improve teacher response to bullying incidents.