School programs that aim to stop bullying do work, but they need to be a long-term part of the curriculum, new research suggests.

In a study of 47 elementary schools in the Netherlands, schools that instituted anti-bullying programs saw some success, researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. In general, children who had been bullied before the program said the problem had waned, and those who’d been the perpetrators said they’d changed their behavior.

The benefits, however, did not extend into the next school year, when most schools dropped or scaled back their anti-bullying efforts.

Lack of time and resources are an obstacle to keeping up such programs every year, with school officials feeling they have many issues to address other than bullying, explained Dr. Minne Fekkes, a researcher with the Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in Leiden.

But bullying is an important social and health issue, according to the researcher. Studies have found, for example, that victims suffer higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts than their peers.

“Because bullying is so widespread and can have such a negative impact on a child’s health and development,” Fekkes told Reuters Health, “it is important to target this health issue.”

Schools in the current study received assistance from an educational-research organization in starting up their programs, which included writing up clear policies against bullying, training teachers to address the problem and teaching students how to better relate to each other.

Through surveys of more than 3,800 9- to 12-year-old students, Fekkes and colleagues found that children at schools with anti-bullying policies often saw changes in their peers’ behavior.

By the end of the school year, about 15 percent of these students said they were being bullied, versus roughly 18 percent at the beginning of the year. And in general, children in these schools felt they were getting along better with their classmates.

In contrast, the number of bullied students increased in schools that had no anti-bullying program.

During the next school year, however, the differences between the two groups of schools largely disappeared, as most schools stopped or trimmed down their anti-bullying efforts.

But the benefits seen in the first year, according to Fekkes, suggest that such programs are worth the time and resources.

“Schools may need more help to keep up their anti-bullying activities,” the researcher said.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, June 2006.