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The effects of a kindergarten training program in phonological awareness with 209 Swedish-speaking children were followed up until the end of Grade 9. Initial levels of letter knowledge and phonological awareness were positively associated with the level of decoding skill in Grade 3 but not with its growth afterward. The intervention group performed significantly better in decoding in Grade 3, and the difference was maintained until Grade 6. The trained children also scored higher in Grade 9 reading comprehension. Although the results give empirical support for a connection between early phonological awareness training, later word decoding development, and still later reading comprehension, the theoretical explanation for the link between especially word decoding and reading comprehension is far from clear.

Background: Evidence suggests that the KiVa anti-bullying programme may contribute to a reduction in bullying and victimisation, especially in primary school level. What is more, the level of implementation moderates the programme effects: the more the programme was implemented, the more bullying was reduced. Purpose: Consequently, it is of interest to investigate the factors affecting the implementation of the KiVa anti-bullying programme. We analysed whether teachers' perceptions of support from the head teacher predicted the implementation adherence of the programme. Sample: We used a randomised sample of 93 Grade 1-3 (students' age 7-9 years) teachers in 27 Finnish primary schools. Design and methods: Online surveys on perceptions of two types of head teacher support: (1) general support as a superior and (2) programme support for the KiVa anti-bullying programme were administered to the teachers; written observational reports on implementation adherence (frequency, contents and duration) were also utilised. Data was collected during the academic year 2008-2009. Effects of head teacher support on implementation adherence were modelled both at the teacher level and at the school level. Results: On average, implementation adherence of the student lessons was good. Teacher's experience of programme support from the head teacher was positively related to implementation adherence, whereas, surprisingly, teacher's experience of general support did not enhance implementation and was even negatively related to it. Conclusions: The school-based prevention and intervention programmes are delivered through social systems and individuals, and they inevitably trigger multilevel dynamics. Implementation is not only the responsibility of individual teachers but it happens in the context of the school community, the head teacher and the local-level resources and policies.

We examined whether the bystanders' behaviors in bullying situations influence vulnerable students' risk for victimization. The sample consisted of 6,980 primary school children from Grades 3-5, who were nested within 378 classrooms in 77 schools. These students filled out Internet-based questionnaires in their schools' computer labs. The results from multilevel models indicated that the associations between victimization and its two risk factors-social anxiety and peer rejection-were strongest in classrooms that were high in reinforcing bullying and low in defending the victims. This suggests that bystanders' behaviors in bullying situations moderate the effects of individual and interpersonal risk factors for victimization. Influencing these behaviors might be an effective way to protect vulnerable children from victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]