College of Public Health

Evaluating Iowa’s anti-bullying law

Between 1999 and 2010 state anti-bullying policies proliferated in the US.  With all 50 states having such a law today, researchers in Iowa have asked:  Is it working?

Dr. Marizen Ramirez and other researchers from the UI IPRC recently published a study evaluating the effectiveness of Iowa’s anti-bullying law in preventing bullying.  The study looked at how student and teacher behaviors changed after the passage of the law, using data from a statewide survey of 6th, 8th and 11th graders conducted by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

See KGAN’s story on Ramirez’s study.

Researchers found that after Iowa Code 280.28 was enacted in 2007, there was increased reporting of bullying the first year.  This was followed by a decrease in the chances of being frequently bullied three years after the law compared to one year after—suggesting that Iowa’s law is having a positive effect on reducing bullying. 

Cyberbullying was the only type of bullying that did not follow this pattern, and increased over time.  Other forms of bullying include psychological, verbal and physical bullying.

Iowa’s anti-bullying law requires schools to:

  • Define acts of bullying
  • Put into place a process for reporting incidents
  • Describe consequences and actions for bully perpetrators

Highschool students running in park

Teacher intervention is associated with decreased chances of bullying, but the study found that Iowa’s anti-bullying law did not improve such intervention over time.

In Iowa, bullying is common, with about 47% of middle and high school students reporting some form of bullying during the study period. Bullying is associated with aggression, depression and poor school performance, among others, and is the most common form of youth violence in the world.

Ramirez is currently conducting a study on cyberbullying messages and peer networks in middle school students.

Learn about UI IPRC’s web toolkit to help educators use art to reduce bullying: www.hear-project.org