School bullying is one of the most serious issues facing Australian schools. Students who are bullied can be left psychologically and emotionally devastated for years afterwards.

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Last month, the federal government released the results of a rapid review into bullying. Among the recommendations, it encouraged schools to mobilise students to be "upstanders". Releasing the review, Education Minister Jason Clare described upstanders as "people who are prepared to stand up, not walk past the problem".

On the face of it, this makes sense - if students stand up for their peers and call out bullying, perpetrators may stop and victims will be better off, right?

But international peer-reviewed research does not support this. In fact, research suggests that actively encouraging students to be upstanders to bullying may even be counterproductive.

The approach of training student bystanders to defend victims was popularised in the late 1990s by leading Finnish psychologist and researcher, Christina Salmivalli. Salmivalli argued, because bullying occurs in groups, interventions should target the whole group, not just students who bully, or are bullied. She argued young people should be trained to help their peers if they see them being bullied.

For example, if a student is ridiculing a peer about their appearance, other students who notice this behaviour might step in and tell them to stop.

Encouragement of peer bystander support is one of many strategies incorporated into evidence-based whole-school anti-bullying programs in Australia and

© Canberra Times