Promoting bullying prevention and intervention through forgiveness education

There is growing recognition of the severe, adverse long-term effects that bullying behaviors have, on the victims or on bullies. Although there are many existing anti-bullying programs that are designed to counteract both the behaviors and their potential long-term negative effects, forgiveness education programs may also be used to help create a positive school climate in which bullies can take responsibility for their behaviors and begin to reintegrate into the social fabric of the school. The purpose of this research proposal is to examine the effects of the International Forgiveness Institute's (IFI) forgiveness education curriculum in comparison to an anti-bullying program (Steps to Respect). Fourth and fifth grade classes from twelve elementary (K-5) schools will be chosen to participate in this study, and will be randomly assigned to either implement IFI's forgiveness education curriculum, the Steps to Respect program, or serve as a control group. It is hypothesized that the students in schools that implement forgiveness education will display greater increases in forgiveness toward an offender as measured by the Enright Forgiveness Inventory for Children. In addition, it is hypothesized that students who receive the forgiveness education will display greater increases in empathy when compared to the other treatment groups. Finally, it is hypothesized that the forgiveness education group will have a lower rate of investigations into incidents of bullying behavior. PROMOTING BULLYING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION THROUGH FORGIVENESS EDUCATION