The 25 participating schools allowed one-quarter of their pupils to complete the survey questionnaire, yielding 4,700 completed responses. All these respondents were invited to make anonymous open comments on any aspects of peer relationships and school life. The schools also agreed that up to 10 pupils from across the age groups in each school would be interviewed following a structured format. Full sets of data were developed for 13 schools, partial interview data was obtained from an additional 7, and questionnaire responses only from an additional 5 schools. The research team believed that questionnaire responses, although "bullying" was not mentioned in the survey, would indicate the extent of the problem by uncovering some of the detail of self-confessed behavior. The first chapter links the research context and the reality of school life, followed by a chapter based on the experiences of a group of youth; it leads to consideration of the impact of anti-bullying within the project schools in Chapter 3. The central contention of the research is that policies are only of limited value unless they are part of a positive overall culture of the school; this is addressed in Chapter 4, and then Chapter 5 explores the way in which policies have evolved and the detail and help that they provide. The book also contends that much change must come from outside the school, so the next two chapters are concerned with the role of parents and the community in achieving changed attitudes. The process of change in the schools that have been successful in implementing anti-bullying policies is examined in Chapter 8, and the reality of change is shown in the three case studies presented in Chapter 9. The concluding chapter revisits the approach to developing positive school culture as the key to effective anti-bullying strategies. Chapter tables and a 155-item bibliography