Professor Helen Cowie, director of the UK Observatory for the Promotion of Non-Violence at the University of Surrey, said the popular technique was not driving down levels of bullying and should be revisited.
Research she is conducting into the effectiveness of peer support systems, due to be published next year, would show that peer mentoring had not made any difference in many schools, she added.
She is doing the research with Professor Peter K Smith, head of the Unit for School and Family Studies at Goldsmiths College.
"When we looked at all the (existing) studies, we found there was a subjective impression that bullying went down following the introduction of a peer support service. But when we did a more objective measure of rates of bullying (we sent an anonymous questionnaire to schools before and after they had introduced a peer support service) we found it hadn't made a difference.
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