Bullying is a phenomenon that afflicts millions of students around the world, severely harming their emotional and psychological well-being. In response to this challenge, the TEI program (Tutoría Entre Iguales or Peer Tutoring) has been developed as a bullying prevention strategy, aiding students in acquiring social skills and emotional strategies for conflict resolution. The purpose of this research is to examine social skills and empathy among different actors involved in bullying (non-involved, victim, bully, and bully-victim) among secondary school students and to evaluate the impact of the TEI program on the development of relational competencies. A comparative, ex post facto study was conducted in three schools where the TEI program has been implemented (TEI schools) and three where it has not (non-TEI schools). A total of 738 secondary school students (ESO) participated in the study, using a standardized questionnaire to evaluate their perception of bullying. The results of this study demonstrate higher levels of assertiveness and empathy in the non-involved and victim groups. However, lower levels of conflict resolution skills were found in the bully-victim group. In TEI schools, a higher percentage of students not involved in bullying and a lower percentage of bully-victims were observed. Additionally, students in TEI schools scored higher in assertiveness, conflict resolution skills, social skills, and empathy. These findings highlight the importance of developing students’ relational competencies and implementing strategies for bullying prevention to create a safe, healthy, and positive learning environment in schools.

The TEI peer tutoring program (in Spanish, Tutoría entre Iguales, hereinafter TEI ) is Spain’s most important coexistence program for the prevention of violence and bullying in secondary schools and one of the first worldwide. So that we may better appreciate the effectiveness and benefits of this program, a comparative study has been developed between four schools that are presently following this preventive strategy (TEI centres) and four other schools that do not carry out the TEI program (non-TEI centres). Controlling the other sociodemographic variables, students’ perception of coexistence, bullying and cyberbullying has been evaluated. In total, 1015 secondary school students belonging to eight schools from four autonomous communities in Spain participated. The results reveal that the students of TEI centres have a more favourable perception of educational coexistence and indicate lower rates of bullying and cyberbullying than those studying at non-TEI centres. These results highlight the benefits of the TEI program and the need to continue promoting and expanding these preventing bullying strategies in schools.