Brazilian teacher training for bullying prevention through the "Violência Nota Zero" program

This study examined the impact of a training program on elementary school teachers regarding reported incidents of school violence by both teachers and students, as well as teachers’ beliefs about bullying and their strategies for addressing it. The intervention involved 46 teachers and 181 students from the 4th and 5th grades in Brazil. Among the teachers, 26 were assigned to an experimental group while 20 formed a control group. Data collection utilized two scales focused on school violence, completed by students, alongside three surveys regarding teachers' beliefs about bullying and their self-efficacy, completed by the teachers themselves. Post-intervention results indicated that the experimental group of teachers experienced a significant decrease in their perception of student victimization (r = -0.548) and an improvement in their self-efficacy concerning bullying intervention (r = 0.44). Additionally, there was an increase in the use of monitoring strategies (r = 0.349) and a reduction in punitive approaches (r = -0.378). Among the experimental group of students, a notable decline in the frequency of bullying victimization was also recorded (r = -0.126). The program yielded promising outcomes; however, further research is necessary to determine whether these effects are sustained across different educational contexts and over the long term.