Bully prevention in positive behavior support.

Six elementary students who bullied others took part. The school taught every child to ignore bullying and to report it. Staff used the same three-step lesson with the whole school. The researchers tracked each bully every day to see if the behavior dropped.

They used a multiple-baseline design. That means they started the lessons at different times for each student. If bullying fell only after the lesson began, the team could be sure the program, not luck, caused the change.

Bullying incidents dropped for all six students. Peers also stopped laughing or looking when bullying happened. Teachers followed the lesson plan with high accuracy. The gains held without extra rewards or reminders.

Veenman et al. (2018) looked at 19 randomized trials of classroom behavior programs. They found small but real drops in disruptive behavior. Their meta-analysis covers the same PBS era as this study, but it lumps all programs together. The new bully package fits inside their wider pattern.

Sottilare et al. (2023) used the same multiple-baseline design with three at-risk students. Their Check-in/Check-out program also cut problem behavior. Both studies show tier-2 PBS works when you stagger start times across kids.

Alwahbi (2024) moved school-wide PBS online for students with ASD. Large behavior gains happened fast. That study extends this bully work beyond general-education halls and into virtual special-ed rooms.

You can run this program with materials already in most PBS schools. Teach the three-step lesson during morning meeting. Practice ignoring and reporting with the whole class. Track one or two chronic bullies with simple event counts. No extra tokens, prizes, or 1:1 aides needed. If you see the same drop the team saw, you have an easy, low-cost tool to make hallways safer for everyone.