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The Role of Arts-Based Curricula in Bullying Prevention: Elijah's KiteA

Children's Opera
Dilys Haner, Debra Pepler, Joanne Cummings and Alice Rubin-Vaughan
Canadian Journal of School Psychology 2010 25: 55 originally published online 19
November 2009
DOI: 10.1177/0829573509349031

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 Canadian Journal of School Psychology
25(1) 5569
The Role of Arts-Based 2010 SAGE Publications
Reprints and permission: http://www.
Curricula in Bullying sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0829573509349031
Prevention: Elijahs KiteA http://cjs.sagepub.com

Childrens Opera

Dilys Haner,1 Debra Pepler,1

Joanne Cummings,1 and Alice Rubin-Vaughan1

Abstract
This article describes a childrens opera about bullying that was presented to five
classrooms in three schools and evaluated with a prepost design. Data were available
for 104 Grade 4 and 5 students who completed a bullying prevalence survey and bullying
knowledge quiz before and 6 weeks after the opera. Bullying knowledge increased
significantly and there was a significant decrease in self-reported victimization. There
was a significant gender by time interaction indicating that boys reported less bullying
whereas girls reported more bullying over time. Findings are discussed in terms of the
arts as media for bullying prevention.

Rsum
Lapprentissage par les arts est une approche originale que nous pouvons utiliser
dans nos activits pdagogiques destines aux enfants, dans le cadre dun programme
de prvention multilment contre lintimidation. Dans cet article, on nous dcrit
un opra pour enfants traitant dintimidation, lequel fut prsent dans cinq classes
de trois coles diffrentes. Une valuation pr/post accompagnait cette activit,
permettant ainsi de recueillir des donnes auprs de 104 enfants de 4e et 5e anne.
Ces derniers ont rpondu un sondage portant sur la prvalence de lintimidation
et sur leurs connaissances en matire dintimidation; ce questionnaire fut complt
deux reprises par ces jeunes, soit avant dassister la reprsentation de lopra et
six semaines plus tard. En comparant leurs rponses, on note quaprs lopra, leurs
connaissances sur lintimidation se sont nettement amliores et que le nombre de
divulgation personnelle des victimes dintimidation a grandement chut. Toutefois,
dans lensemble la prvalence de dnonciations personnelles des victimes dintimation
demeure inchange. Dautre part, on note une diffrence marque entre les garons
et les filles au fil du temps; ainsi, les divulgations de cas dintimidation diminuent chez

1
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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56 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25(1)

les garons avec le temps, contrairement aux filles qui, de leur ct, font davantage
de dnonciations. Dans cet article, nous tudions ces donnes la lumire dune
approche artistique utilise dans le but de prvenir lintimidation et dencourager un
apprentissage socio-affectif chez les jeunes.

Keywords
Bullying, arts, intervention

Since Olweus began investigating bullying in the 1970s, there has been growing inter-
est in developing school-based bullying prevention programs (Baldry & Farrington,
2007; Smith, Ananiadou, & Cowie, 2003). Elijahs Kite is an opera for children by
Tapestry New Opera works and the Manhattan School of Music. It was developed by
librettist Camyar Chai and composer James Rolfe and directed by Wayne Strongman.
The story follows a group of students as they deal with physical, verbal, and social
bullying at their school. Under the thumb of Big Billy Bret, the children experience
their lives changing as a new girl, Miriam, reacts in new ways against his bullying.
Miriam quickly becomes popular and starts to bully other children. She realizes that
she can use her social power to bully or help others. By developing empathy and learn-
ing to appreciate each others differences, the children work together to make Elijahs
kite fly.
International evidence supports a multisystems approach to bullying prevention,
with active involvement by governments, school boards, communities, and schools
(Greene, 2003; Kallestad & Olweus, 2003; Rahey & Craig, 2002; Shinn, 2003). There
is an emerging consensus that effective school bullying prevention needs to be systemic
with several components: school policies that address bullying, active commitment by
school administrators, positive social climate, adequate resources for staff training,
meaningful parent involvement, and, for all students, ongoing developmentally tailored
learning activities (Pepler & Craig, 2008; Pepler, Smith, & Rigby, 2004). In this article,
we examine how an arts-based curriculum activity can serve as a bullying prevention
resource for children. We recognize that a brief opera and accompanying activities do
not comprise a stand-alone program; however, they provide a component of a multidi-
mensional bullying prevention program. We argue that arts-based curricula are
particularly important in bullying prevention, because of the unique power of the arts
to change hearts and minds.
When bullying is understood as a relationship problem (Pepler & Craig, 2008), it
becomes clear that solutions lie in promoting childrens capacity for respectful inter-
actions and enduring relationships with peers. Because there is heterogeneity among
children who bully, and among children who are victimized (Marini & Dane, 2008),
there is no one-size-fits-all relationship capacity or skill that will remediate bullying
problems. For example, some children who bully may need to develop the capacity
for empathy, to find prosocial ways to assert social dominance, or to develop their

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Haner et al. 57

capacity to contain anger and frustration (Marini & Dane, 2008). Some children may
need to develop their ability to form friendships; others may need to learn to regulate
their emotional displays or to communicate assertively. Each of these nuanced rela-
tionship skills can be addressed through social-emotional learning curricula (Hymel,
Schonert-Reichl, & Miller, 2006), and we suggest that the complexity and unpredict-
ability of relationships can be effectively modeled through arts curricula.
In elementary school, the majority of bullying incidents are fuelled by the atten-
tion of bystanders (Craig, Pepler, & Atlas, 2000; OConnell, Pepler, & Craig, 1999;
Salmivalli, Kaukiainen, & Voeten, 2005). Although children typically understand
that those who are bullied do not deserve abusive treatment (Tomas de Almeida,
Caurcel, & Machada, 2008), the majority of children do not take action to stop the
bullying when they witness it (Poyhonen & Samilvalli, 2008). Yet, when bystanders
do intervene in bullying, it stops 57% of the time within 10 seconds (Hawkins,
Pepler, & Craig, 2001).
Because bullying is hidden from adults and unfolds in the context of the peer group,
most interventions focus on mobilizing peers to stand up to bullying (Pepler & Craig,
2008). Yet, mobilizing bystanders is difficult because empathy and moral responsibility
tend to be overridden by the intensity of the moment, fear of reprisal or stigmatization,
and lack of self-efficacy (Poyhonen & Salmivalli, 2008). Arts curricula are ideally
suited to inspire socially responsible behavior and to provide the role modeling neces-
sary to help students envision themselves standing up to bullying.
Education theorist, David Carr (2005) argued that the arts have a special place in
the education of affect. He stated that the arts not only . . . assist human cognitive
evaluation or appraisal of feeling and emotion, but also shape the quality of experi-
enced feeling (p. 14). Carr viewed the arts as a unique tool to add emotional depth to
cognition and as a vital element of moral development in young students. Likewise,
Schleifer and Martiny (2006) described music as an important tool to assist in the
education of moral character through its appeal to the emotions of young people.
There is a precedent for arts-based curricula in violence prevention, with several eval-
uation researchers reporting positive outcomes in terms of students engagement in the
activities and students expressed commitment to abstain from future violence, espe-
cially when they are involved in the creation or presentation of the artistic form
(Hervey & Kornblum, 2006; Kisiel et al., 2006; Koshland & Wittaker, 2004; Long &
Soble, 1999). Elijahs Kite performance includes a chorus of local student performers,
increasing the connection to the audience. The production utilizes the power of story,
performance, and music to engage children.

The Power of Story

When arts-based curricula provide children with imagined models of peer relation-
ships, the complexities of dyadic processes and group dynamics may be experienced,
examined, and reflected on. Teachers may play a critical role in helping children reflect
on their personal responses. Tapestry commissioned a teachers guide (McKenney,

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58 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25(1)

Pepler, & McGrath, 2006) that describes bullying and peer dynamics and outlines
activities to enhance the students understanding and amplify the impact of the
performance.
In discussing bibliotherapy for children, Eileen Nickerson (1975) emphasized four
processes that are relevant to the present discussion. The first, involvement, refers
to the storys ability to engage the audiences involvement. To meet this criterion, the
artistic work must be sufficiently engaging, entertaining, and emotionally realistic.
The second, identification, refers to the process by which audience members project
themselves on to one of the storys characters, so that they vicariously experience the
actions of the story from the identified characters point of view. In stories depicting
bullying, a benefit of identification is that it enables victimized children to recognize
that they are not alone. The third process, catharsis, refers to the audience vicariously
experiencing the emotions of the identified character. The audience experiences an
emotional crisis, release, and resolution in parallel to the identified character, which is
thought to be beneficial and healing. Although reexperiencing negative emotions may
be painful for a child who has been victimized, the structure of the artistic narrative is
designed to bring about a resolution of the problem, so that painful feelings transform
into positive feelings related to overcoming a challenge. We expect that the act of
vicariously experiencing painful emotions of victimized characters in the opera will
enhance students capacity for empathy and increase a sense of motivation to stand up
to bullying in real life. The final process, insight, refers to the audience developing an
increased understanding and capacity to solve problems depicted in the story.
Because of the power of a story to influence childrens affective and cognitive
understanding of bullying, it is essential that the story communicate messages that
involve relationship solutions (Pepler & Craig, 2008). Stories about bullying may per-
petuate stereotypes that are neither realistic nor therapeutic. For example, an overly
simplistic story that depicts a bullying problem as easily solved is unlikely to elicit
students involvement and, therefore, may not change attitudes or behaviors. Stories
may also perpetuate the myth that children who bully are one dimensional and morally
bad, and the resolution of the bullying problem involves an excluding responsefor
example, the child who bullies is suspended from school. Of similar concern are stor-
ies that depict the victimized child undergoing an unrealistic transformation in which
their power is increased, enabling revenge over the child who bullied. Although this
scenario has emotional appeal, it perpetuates the disempowerment of the child in the
victim role, as it affords no insights into solving real-life problems, and suggests relief
is only possible through fantasy.

The Power of Theatre

Live performances can provide powerful experiential learning experiences for
audience members. The power of the performance comes from the effects it has on
the viewers emotional and cognitive states. Winston (2005) argued that the playful
and open aspects of the enacted narrative energize students moral engagement and

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Haner et al. 59

subsequent reflection, and suggests that this has implications for moral pedagogy.
Likewise, Cooper (2004) suggested that theatre provides the preconditions of learning
involving experiential and cultural programming that feed the intellect and imagina-
tion while allowing children to engage with each other and the performers. Cooper
used Vygotskys (1978) sociocultural theory of human development to place the
performance and childrens involvement in it as mediation for learning. He also
described students transformation out of behavioral difficulties through dramatic
experimentation with different behavioral choices in situations that previously caused
them problems.
Theatre-based interventions have also been used successfully in health promotion
related to adolescents drug and alcohol-use attitudes and behaviors (Gliksman,
Douglas, & Smythe, 1983; Safer & Harding, 1993). There has also been theatrical
engagement using puppets, song, and theatre in television shows, such as Sesame Street,
being used to mould the hearts and minds of children with educational and prosocial
messages (Bernstein, 2000; Bogatz & Ball, 1971; Fisch, 2004).

The Power of Music

Much of operas emotional power lies within the music. Music is capable of evoking
strong emotion, as demonstrated by Hevner in his classic 1936 study. Listeners readily
and consistently applied emotional adjectives to musical selections that varied along
two dimensions: valence and level of emotional energy. More recently, musical ten-
sion was correlated with physical indicators of emotional arousal (Krumhansl, 2000).
Dissanayake (2001) discussed the biological origin of music and its relevance to music
therapy, suggesting that vocal, physical, and visual elements affect the participants
emotional state. In a subsequent review, Krumhansl (2002) suggested that the musical
characteristics that influence elicited emotion are key, rhythm, and harmony. The emo-
tional power of music depends not only on the skill of the composer and player but also
on the listeners basic encoding of information (Trainor, 2008). Trainor described how
certain sounds elicit consistent emotions in humans regardless of culture. For example,
worldwide mothers use baby talk to engage their children. Similarly, lullabies around
the world are soft, slow, melodic, and intended to soothe. Trainor suggested that these,
and other, similarities among cultures and eras are a testament to the evolutionary
heritage of our auditory systems (p. 598). She also suggested that strong emotions are
invoked in the listener via the lessening and increasing of tension within the music, for
example, through the alternating of consonance and dissonance.
Interestingly, Krumhansl and Schenck (1997) demonstrated a robust emotional
link between music and dance. They found that participants described similar emo-
tions in music and dance during exposure to the Minuetto from Divertimento No. 15
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and choreographed by George Balanchine, regardless
of whether they were exposed to the dance, music, or both. Likewise, Chapados and
Levitin (2008) found higher levels of electrodermal activity in participants who could
both see and hear musicians performing as compared to those who could only see or

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60 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25(1)

only hear, suggesting that musicians body movements and musical sound that origi-
nate in the same inner motion are more strongly transferred to the audience if perceived
both aurally and visually. These studies demonstrate the power of music, physical
performance, and the two combined to arouse an emotional state in the audience.

The Elijahs Kite Evaluation

Opera is designed to elicit the experience of heightened emotion. Operatic story is
moved along in recitative (a narrative song where words are used as the main mode of
expression) while emotion is explored and experienced through aria (song that makes
use of melody and the beauty of long vowels). Opera is also a rich, larger-than-life
visual backdrop on which the musical story unfolds. It includes music, acting, design,
and danceworking cumulatively to elicit emotion. In this way, Elijahs Kite can fill
a need within the school to support students social-emotional learning in a more
effective way than traditional teaching approaches. According to the NASP Blueprint
(National Association of School Psychologists, 2006), schools are no longer a realm
only for studying academic subjects, but they are increasingly important in the domains
of health promotion, social skills, and life skills. Social-emotional problems take place
within the school, and therefore, schools must participate in the engagement of mul-
tiple systems including the family and community to address these problems. Arts
interventions are one element that provides a context for social-emotional learning. To
have an effect on bullying, a comprehensive approach must be taken to address the
systemic factors that contribute toward this problem (Power, 2007).
We had two hypotheses for this evaluation. First, we expected to find an increase in
bullying knowledge from pre- to posttest as measured by a bullying quiz. Second, we
expected to find a behavioral change indicated by a decrease in students reports of
bullying and victimization from pretest to posttest.

Method
Participants

The Elijahs Kite study was conducted as an element of evaluation of schools vio-
lence prevention and character education curricula. The evaluation took place in five
Grades 4 and 5 classrooms within three schools in a large metropolitan area. All three
schools are located in low-income, multicultural neighborhoods that reflect the cul-
tural diversity of the city. Students were asked to complete two pencil and paper
surveys during class time with the understanding that their responses would be con-
fidential and their participation was voluntary. Students were reassured that they
would not be penalized should they not take part and were given the option of partici-
pating in alternative classroom activities during the survey administration. Because
this learning experience was part of the school curriculum evaluation and considered

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Haner et al. 61

testing within normal educational requirements, consent for the evaluation was pro-
vided by the principal and the teachers.
On the day of the performance, 130 baseline questionnaire packages were col-
lected; however, only 121 contained complete data. At follow-up, 104 questionnaires
with usable data were collected. Thus, 104 students were considered participants in
the present study because they completed both baseline and follow-up surveys. There
were 57 boys and 47 girls.

Measures
An adapted version of the Bullying Quiz (PREVNet, 2007) was used to measure bul-
lying knowledge. This 10-item true or false quiz was originally developed to engage
adults and children in debunking bullying myths, and all items are based on empirical
findings. The language was simplified to be appropriate for grades four and five. Chil-
dren were presented with statements that could be marked true, false, or it depends.
Cronbachs alpha was .20 at baseline and .23 at follow-up, suggesting that the 10 items
were relatively independent of each another. The quiz is presented in appendix.
A shortened version of the Safe Schools Survey (PREVNet, 2007), containing 13
items, was used to assess self-reported bullying and victimization. First, bullying was
defined in its many forms, (e.g., physical, verbal, social, and cyber). Participants were
asked how often in the past month that they had been bullied at school or on the way to
and from school. Participants could choose one of four responses ranging from 0 to 3,
creating an ordinal scale based on frequency: 0 = I have not been bullied, 1 = it has
happened once or twice, 2 = about once a week, or 3 = several times a week. Partici-
pants were given the same response choices when asked how often in the past month
that they had bullied others. The mean of each of the victimization and bullying scores
was used in the analyses of changes over time.
The Opera Experience Questionnaire was developed for the purpose of this evalua-
tion. It comprises five questions related to the participants emotional experiences
during the opera. Students were asked to describe what was occurring on stage during
self-reported heightened emotion. This survey was designed to gather descriptive and
qualitative information about childrens reactions to the music in the opera and to inves-
tigate the effects of the musical structure on childrens understanding of the operas
themes. Teachers administered the Opera Experience Questionnaire after returning to the
classroom immediately after the performance. Only 51 completed questionnaires were
obtained from two classrooms. Misplacement of the questionnaires was cited as the
teachers reason for noncompliance. Highlights are presented in the Discussion.

Procedure
Five children from each school were appointed by staff to participate as performers in
the chorus and one child as the role of the kite. The teachers study guide (McKenney

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62 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25(1)

et al., 2006) was provided to the teachers at the time of booking, several months before
the performance. Themes explored in the opera and teachers guide include the follow-
ing: power differentials, changing social status, the role of peers as an audience,
empathy, and tolerance. The teachers guide provided activities and worksheets for
students and guided teachers in recognizing and intervening in bullying situations.
For this evaluation, we used a prepost test design with measures administered by
two researchers before the opera, on the day of the performance, and again at 6 weeks
following the opera. The surveys were identical for pre- and posttesting. Prior to the
administration of the surveys, we provided the students with a description of physical,
verbal, social, and cyber bullying and led a discussion, to ensure that the students
understood these four types of bullying. The researchers read the surveys aloud and
provided assistance to facilitate the comprehension of students for whom English was
a second language.
To provide support for those who may have experienced distress triggered by the
issues in the opera and surveys, children were provided with the phone number and
Web site of Kids Help Phone, a confidential counseling service.

Results
At baseline, there were 121 children who completed the survey, and at follow-up
there were 104 children. Independent sample t tests and equivalency tests were con-
ducted between the attrition group (n = 17) and the present sample on two baseline
variables: victimization (were you bullied?) and bullying (did you bully?). The t tests
for victimization and bullying, respectively, were both nonsignificant, t(119) = 0.90
and t(118) = -1.11, ps > .05.
Pretest to follow-up knowledge, victimization, and bullying mean scores were each
analyzed using a repeated measures mixed ANOVA, with time (pre- or posttest) as the
within-participants variable and gender as the between-participants variable. Means
and standard deviations for all study variables are reported in Table 1.
The first hypothesis was that the bullying knowledge scores would increase from
pre- to posttest. We found a significant main effect for time; knowledge scores on the
Bullying Quiz increased from a mean score of 4.47 (range = 0-9) on the day of the
performance to 5.10 (range = 1-10) 6 weeks later, F(1, 101) = 7.90, p = .006, hp2 = .07.
This is interpreted as a medium effect size; according to Cohen (1988), for partial eta
squared, a small effect size is .01, a medium effect is .06, and a large effect is .14.
There was no main effect for gender and no gender by time interaction.
The second hypothesis was that there would be a decrease in students self-reports
of victimization and bullying others over the 6-week period. With respect to victimiza-
tion, we found a significant main effect for time, F(1, 101) = 4.52, p = .036, hp2 = .04,
indicating a small but reliable decrease in the mean score of self-reported victimiza-
tion 6 weeks after the performance. Neither the main effect for gender nor the gender
by time interaction was significant.

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Haner et al. 63

Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for Variables at Preintervention and

Postintervention

Boys (n = 57) Girls (n = 46) Total (n = 103)

Variable M SD M SD M SD

Preknowledge 4.54 2.18 4.37 1.90 4.47 2.05

Postknowledge 5.32 1.79 4.83 1.44 5.10 1.65
Previctimization 0.81 0.97 0.89 0.90 0.84 0.94
Postvictimization 0.68 0.83 0.65 0.67 0.67 0.76
Prebullying 0.64 0.97 0.24 0.61 0.46 0.85
Postbullying 0.40 0.71 0.38 0.61 0.39 0.67

With reference to bullying others, neither the main effect for time nor gender was
significant. There was, however, a significant gender by time interaction, F(1, 98) =
6.75, p = .011, hp2 = .06, which is interpreted as a medium effect size. As can be seen
in Table 1, the mean for boys decreased, whereas the mean for girls actually increased.

Discussion
Our findings suggest this opera is a promising bullying prevention resource. Overall,
the experience of watching Elijahs Kite corresponds with a reliable increase in bully-
ing knowledge and reduction in self-reported victimization. There was as well a
significant gender difference with boys self-reported bullying scores decreasing after
the opera and girls scores increasing. These reliable changes allowed us to document
the subtle impact of the intervention on these children.
One encouraging change was the increase in bullying knowledge. Knowledge
about bullying helps children to identify the problem and may encourage their inter-
vention. Many of the constructs tested on the quiz were demonstrated in the opera. For
example, children were asked to answer true, false, or depends to the statement being
more popular is one way kids who bully have more power than those who are bullied,
and the opera depicted Miriam discovering that she could abuse her power and bully
others or use it to help kids who were being bullied.
We also found a significant reduction in reports of victimization. Within Elijahs
Kite, there were many opportunities for children to identify with the participants in
bullying situations and to empathize with the child being victimized. Qualitative
responses on the Opera Experience Questionnaire suggest that this was what hap-
pened in reality. The opera also modeled resolution strategies that involved bystander
support. Although we cannot conclude that the opera experience caused a decrease in
reports of victimization, there may have been an increased recognition of bullying and
empathy that related to the decrease in victimization reports.

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64 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25(1)

There was an increase in reports of bullying for girls, but not for boys. There was a
character in the opera, Nicky, who modeled both bullying behaviors and attractive
aspects of being popular and powerful. The performer who played Nicky raised con-
cerns about the extent to which girls in the audience were drawn to her power. This
performer recognized the need to debrief with female students about Nicky during
question and answer sessions. Conversations not only explored why girls thought
Nicky was cool and imitable but also explored how audience members would feel if
they were being bullied by Nicky. This draws attention to the critical concern of pro-
viding salient and attractive models of bullying in presentations such as Elijahs Kite.
When the researchers discussed this with the artists, a concern emerged regarding the
difficulty of creating engaging characters for young girls. According to the performers,
this type of character is often responsible for the excitement of the stage action or comic
relief, essential components to good storytelling. It may be that girls in this age group
are especially at risk for being seduced by the newfound social power of such charac-
ters. Similarly, engaging performances have been seen in the 2004 movie Mean Girls
directed by Mark Waters, and examples of girls learning to bully as a way to gain social
power abound in the age-appropriate literature. It is a challenge for writers of this genre
to create prosocial messages about positive power that are attractive for the audience.
Students in two classrooms completed an additional postperformance survey that
examined their responses to the opera. Interestingly, 36 out of 51 students reported
that their strongest emotion during the opera was sadness, and many included a com-
ment regarding their empathy for Elijah. This is of interest as Elijah sung the operas
only aria, exploring his hurt feelings from being tormented and not fitting in. When
asked why they felt sad, one child commented, The kite was his only friend. Another
added simply, I have been bullied. These voices provide preliminary evidence for
evoked empathy, which is a key component in bullying intervention.
We expected that Elijahs Kite, which presents prosocial messages through vignettes
that demonstrate real-life consequences, would promote students understanding of
bullying and positive behaviors in relationships. We understand these findings within
a theoretical framework in which music creates an emotionally receptive state in the
viewer, whereas the action on stage creates a cognitive playground in which the audi-
ence experiments with different choices and vicariously experiences emotional
consequences. In this way, the performance works as an emotional-behavioral experi-
ment in which the viewer can experience the consequences of bully, bystander, and
victim roles in the theatrical lab before trying them in real life.

Limitations
The most critical limitation is the lack of comparison groups; so we cannot conclude
that the demonstrated reductions in victimization, reduction in bullying among boys
and increase among girls, and the increase in bullying knowledge were caused by
Elijahs Kite. Also, with only five classrooms and three schools, we were unable to test
for nested effects of classrooms and schools. This is important, as variability among

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Haner et al. 65

teachers comfort levels, commitment to bullying prevention, and differences in school

climate are known to directly affect the effects of bullying prevention initiatives
(Pepler & Craig, 2008; Smith, 2008). Finally, the study was limited by an assessment
immediately before and only one assessment at 6 weeks following the opera. Mea-
surement of bullying 6 weeks before the opera would have provided more accurate
baseline-levels assessments.

Conclusion
This study suggests that a significant reduction in peer victimization is possible over a
brief period and offers preliminary support for the use of arts-based curricula for bul-
lying interventions. Elijahs Kite provides a foundation for future research investigating
the effects of this medium as a bullying prevention learning activity, particularly with
regard to the use of music to promote empathy.

Appendix
Bullying Myths

For each statement, put a checkmark. Is it true, false, or does it depend on the situation?
True False Depends

1. Being more popular is one way kids who bully correct

have more power than those who are bullied
2. Kids who bully dont mean to hurt others; its correct
just fun
3. Kids who are bullied can usually stop the correct
bullying themselves if they fight back
4. Other children should stay away from a bullying correct correct
episode, or they will get bullied as well
5. Keeping bullying a secret helps the kid who is correct
bullying
6. Telling on a kid who bullies will only make the correct correct
situation worse
7. Bullying does not happen in circles of friends correct
8. People should threaten or intimidate the kid correct
who is bullying to make it stop
9. Bullying is a problem between two people correct correct
10. Teachers and parents need help from students correct
to know about whats going on with bullying

Acknowledgment

The authors appreciate the artists who made this intervention possible. They are indebted to the
children, teachers, and principals who participated in this research. We wish to thank Samantha
Yamada, Catherine Cappadocia, and Kangeun Cho for their help with data collection and entry.

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66 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 25(1)

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interests with respect to their authorship or
the publication of this article.

Funding
The authors declared that they received no financial support for their research and/or authorship
of this article.

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Bios
Dilys Haner is a masters candidate in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology program at York
University. She is a graduate of the masters program in Theatre Pedagogy and Performance at
the School of Physical Theatre (cole Jacques LeCoq). She has worked as a professional actress
and opera singer, and is a counselor at Kids Help Phone. Her research on the Elijahs Kite opera
won her an award of Excellence from the Canadian Psychiatric Association for Honours Theses.

Debra Pepler is a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University and a

senior associate scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Her major focus is on aggression and
victimization among children and adolescents, particularly in the school context. Her research

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Haner et al. 69

identifies bullying as a relationship problem that transforms to other problems of power and
aggression over the life span.

Joanne Cummings is the partnership director of PREVNet, mobilizing knowledge and facili-
tating collaborative projects among PREVNet partners. She is also a practicing clinical
psychologist at Blueballoon Health Services in Toronto.

Alice Rubin-Vaughan is a PhD candidate at York University in the Clinical-Developmental

Psychology program. Her current and past research focus has been on aggressive and antisocial
behavior, victimization, and the emotional difficulties of children. Her current research is con-
ducted predominantly within the community and involves children receiving services at the
SNAP Girls Connectiona program for aggressive girls at the Child Development Institute.

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