The Shared Concern Method (or the Pikas method)

The Working Together to Stop Bullying team trains teachers and school staff to use a non-punitive method to deal with the cases of bullying in their schools. This method is broadly based on the Shared Concern Method (SCm), developed in the 1980s by the Swedish professor of Educational Psychology Anatol Pikas. From the 1990s it was successfully introduced in the UK, Australia, France and many other countries, sometimes with slight modifications of the original pattern.

The innovative approach of SCm is in the handling cases of group bullying through mediation between the involved parties and in creating a concern of the bullies for the victim.

Who are the actors?

            In most cases of bullying a number of actors are involved. These obviously include one victim, one or two main bullies and several bystanders.

There is no common profile for either of these actors, but the victim is often perceived as an outsider to the group. This lack of common profile is even more obvious for the bullies.

The bystanders can have either a positive or a negative role. In the latter role, they can encourage the bullies and even push them to ever more aggressive acts or just serve as an audience without intervening. In the former role they can attempt to protect the victim by intervening directly to stop the bullying or by providing information to the adults of the establishment.

How does the Shared Concern Method works?

To apply the SCm, the School must have a trained team of teachers and school staff. This team starts working as soon as a case of bullying is reported. The first step is to clearly define who is in each role (victim, presumed bully/bullies and witnesses). A member of the team is tasked with communicating with the victim while the other members are assigned one or more of the other actors.

            Because of the specificity of the situation, the person that communicates with the victim should preferably have some training in psychology (school psychologist, school nurse…) and his or her role will be to confirm the information on the one hand, but also to reinforce the victim’s confidence and communicate with his or her family.

            The other members of the team can then begin interviewing the other actors. 

            The purpose of these interviews is not to attribute guilt, to punish or to gather information but to create a sense of concern for the victim. The interviews are always short – no more than 5 minutes. The interviewer should reassure the student that his or her role is not punitive and that he/she is only concerned about the state of the victim. Once the student has expressed the shared concern for the victim the interviewer asks him if he can do anything to improve the situation. The student then usually proposes some actions and which the interviewer encourages, concluding that they will meet in the following few days. Each student that is involved meets several times with same member of the team in the short period – up to one week. During the same period, the victim is also interviewed regularly to see how the situation is evolving.

            Once the team is sure that the bullying has ceased, they can organise a meeting which includes all the actors to congratulate them on their positive attitude. 

            The international research has shown that this method successfully resolves more than 75 % cases of bullying. However if the bullying persists, the team should recognise the fact and not persist with the method but rather turn to other means.