The scale of the problem the researchers set out to address is considerable. UNESCO estimates that one in three young people experiences some form of violence in or around school, ranging from physical and psychological aggression to bullying and cyberbullying. A study of fourteen to seventeen year olds across six European countries found that more than a fifth had experienced cyberbullying in the previous twelve months, with girls affected more often than boys. School-related gender-based violence, defined by the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative as acts or threats of sexual, physical or psychological violence occurring in and around schools and enforced by unequal gender norms and power dynamics, affects more than 115 million girls and adolescents worldwide according to UNGEI and UNESCO. The consequences extend far beyond the classroom, with victims showing elevated risks of anxiety disorders, insomnia, fatigue, digestive problems, deficits in social and emotional skills, and, according to one European study, suicidal thoughts in up to 38 percent of affected children. PISA data indicate that 45 percent of frequently bullied students want to leave school after secondary education and perform worse academically.

What makes this study distinctive is its focus on a mechanism that most anti-bullying programs ignore. Isolating gender-based violence, also known as second-order sexual harassment, refers to attacks and reprisals directed not at victims themselves but at those who support them. The logic is brutal in its simplicity: if defenders are punished, isolated or ridiculed, no one will dare to stand beside a victim, and the victim remains alone and more vulnerable. Previous research quantified the effect of this dynamic, finding that 40 percent of people do not support victims of sexual violence precisely because they fear retaliation. Bystander studies have long shown that witnesses who do not intervene are perceived by aggressors as tacitly approving their behavior, and that violence is more likely to occur when witnesses stay silent. Yet witnesses consistently report barriers to intervention, including fear of becoming targets themselves.

The Zero Violence Brave Club emerged from the Dialogic Model for Violence Prevention, which was evaluated within the INCLUD-ED project, a large-scale European Commission study on inclusion and social cohesion running from 2006 to 2011. Since 2011, results of its implementation have been collected and the model has been included in the European Commission’s School Gateway database of successful projects. The program operates on two key components. First, it places at the center the brave attitudes and behaviors that should be promoted, aligned with the principles of dialogic learning, such as solidarity and the possibility of transformation for everyone. Second, it mobilizes the entire educational community to create environments where no aggression of any kind takes place. Students learn to take a stand against violence, denounce it whenever it occurs, value friendship, defend and support victims, and reject violent behavior regardless of who commits it.

To evaluate the program’s impact on gender-based violence specifically, the team used communicative research methodology, an approach recommended by the European Commission for studying vulnerable or discriminated groups because it generates knowledge collaboratively with participants rather than merely about them. The fieldwork involved six communicative focus groups with 21 teachers, six focus groups with 29 pupils aged between 5 and 21, and eight in-depth interviews with family members from four of the schools. An advisory board made up of family members, students and teachers validated the research question, the data collection instruments, the categorization scheme and the main findings. Data were analyzed using categories distinguished by transformative and exclusionary dimensions, with the study focusing on transformative elements, meaning situations in which unequal or discriminatory circumstances were actively overcome.

The first transformative element the researchers identified was the alliance of upstanders. All teachers in the focus groups described how the program creates a sense of group identity among students committed to protecting victims, giving them the confidence and security to intervene without fear of retaliation. One teacher explained that supporting and defending victims is what defines the brave club, describing the group as a family whose members protect, love and care for one another, and noting that second-order harassment had not been observed as a result. A sixth-grade pupil offered a structural explanation for why aggression becomes difficult to sustain: there are always many people united to defend, so either the person who is harassed reports it or someone who sees it does, making an attack far harder to carry out. The mechanism resembles a shift in the social physics of the classroom, where the cost of aggression rises sharply because potential accomplices have been converted into potential defenders.

The second element involved breaking alliances with aggressors. Teachers unanimously agreed that in classrooms where the program is properly implemented, bullies struggle to find allies because there is a shared agreement rejecting violent behavior from anyone. One teacher contrasted this with classrooms without the club, where aggressors typically find support within their social group because classmates frame the situation as a personal conflict rather than a matter of justice. A mother volunteering at the special education center described watching children tell a would-be bully that his behavior would go to the brave club, depriving him of the applauding audience that sustains bullying. Students in one school described how, when an aggressor tells a defender to leave, the defender simply brings more people, and the aggressor ends up alone. This finding aligns with decades of research on the peer ecology of bullying, which shows that reinforcing bystanders sustain aggressive behavior and that removing that reinforcement undermines it.

The third element was the act of naming. Teachers who had received training on the preventive socialization of gender-based violence were familiar with the concept of isolating gender violence and could teach students to recognize attacks on defenders as a distinct form of aggression. Two of the schools adopted explicit norms, protect the one who protects and protect yourself, protect me, protect us. Pupils demonstrated sophisticated understanding, with one explaining that when witnessing injustice, the most effective strategy is to seek additional support so that second-order harassment does not occur, precisely because the more people who stand together, the less likely defenders are to be attacked. Families also received training through dialogic discussions of scientific articles at school, and one mother reported that being able to put names to the realities they encounter gave her confidence about what she could do. The stigmatizing label of snitch or whistle-blower, long used to silence reporting, has disappeared from the schools studied, replaced by the identity of the brave person who breaks the silence.

The study also documented how these changes translate into safe reporting environments with lasting effects. One mother recounted that her son, having learned in primary school how to protect girls from gender-based violence, intervened on his very first day of high school when he saw a boy touching a classmate without her consent, telling the girl to report it to the teacher. At the special education center, teachers described using playground assemblies and a rule called eyes wide open to transform the deeply rooted idea of the reporter into the idea of bravery. Perhaps most strikingly, a sixth-grade pupil reflected that he used to chase girls to hug and touch them against their will because he thought it was fun, but that the club helped him realize it was not fun and stop doing it, a direct illustration of how the program reshapes children’s understanding of consent.

When teachers, students and families were asked whether they feared supporting victims of violence at school, no one answered affirmatively, a result the researchers attribute to the chain of protection created when many people commit to standing together. The authors conclude that the Zero Violence Brave Club prevents gender-based violence through three interconnected mechanisms: creating alliances between upstanders who unite to protect, breaking alliances with aggressors by rejecting violence for the common good, and naming isolating gender violence so that it can be identified and countered. The findings echo a growing body of literature emphasizing bystander intervention, community engagement and victim protection as protective factors. The researchers suggest the approach could extend beyond formal schooling to summer camps, sports clubs and after-school activities, and they call for future research on its application in secondary schools, where approaches to violence differ considerably, as well as on the exclusionary barriers that can persist when the program is not fully implemented.

Subject of Research: Prevention of isolating gender-based violence among school students through the Zero Violence Brave Club educational program

Article Title: The Zero Violence Brave Club: a successful educational action to overcome isolating gender-based violence with young adolescents

Article References: Sevilla, S. C., Alcantud, P. M., Ríos González, O., de Gauna, I. T. R., & Barbany, J. M. C. (2025). The Zero Violence Brave Club: a successful educational action to overcome isolating gender-based violence with young adolescents. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 14(1), Article 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44322-025-00031-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44322-025-00031-2

Keywords: gender-based violence, school violence, bystander intervention, bullying prevention, isolating gender violence, Zero Violence Brave Club, dialogic learning, upstanders, second-order sexual harassment, educational research, child protection, Spain