Longitudinal impact of the Cyber Friendly Schools program on adolescents’ cyberbullying behavior

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a major public health problem associated with serious mental, social, and academic consequences for young people. To date, few programs addressing cyberbullying have been developed and empirically tested. The Cyber Friendly Schools (CFS) group-randomized controlled trial measured the longitudinal impact of a whole-school online cyberbullying prevention and intervention program, developed in partnership with young people. Non-government secondary schools in Perth, Western Australia, (N = 35; 3,000+ students) were randomized to an intervention (n = 19) or usual practice control group (n = 16 schools). Students completed online questionnaires in 2010, 2011, and at 1-year follow-up in 2012, measuring their cyberbullying experiences during the previous school term. The intervention group received the program in Grades 8 and 9 (aged 13-14 years). Program effects were tested using two-part growth models. The program was associated with significantly greater declines in the odds of involvement in cyber-victimization and perpetration from pre- to the first post-test, but no other differences were evident between the study conditions. However, teachers implemented only one third of the program content. More work is needed to build teacher capacity and self-efficacy to effectively implement cyberbullying programs. Whole-school cyberbullying interventions implemented in conjunction with other bullying prevention programs may reduce cyber-victimization more than traditional school-based bullying prevention programs alone. Aggr. Behav. 42:166-180, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Growing a cyber-safety culture amongst school learners in South Africa through gaming

“…The results in Table 4 clearly indicate that even when basic cyber-safety awareness is in place, school learners are still exposed to cyber-risks. As much as 78% of the children had been exposed to cyber-bullying, which is a major public health problem that is directly linked to serious mental, social and academic consequences for school learners (Cross et al, 2016).…”

“…It is used in all areas -from education, socialising and information gathering to being the foundation of industrial processes. ICT has enormous benefits provided that it is used correctly (Byron, 2008;Cross et al, 2016). If technology is used incorrectly, it can lead a number of cyber-related risks and threats which include access to inappropriate material (pornography), personal information being compromised (identity theft), and emotion-related threats (cyber-bullying) (Atkinson, Furnell, & Phippen, 2009;S.…”

“…School learners are spending more time online than ever before (Park, Na, & Kim, 2014). It is therefore essential that school learners be educated about protecting themselves (and their information) in the cyber environment (Cross et al, 2016;Kritzinger, 2014). It is the responsibility of all role players (parents, guardians, teachers and government) to ensure that all school learners who have access to ICT protect themselves and their information (de Lange & von Solms, 2012;Department of Basic Education, RSA, 2015).…”

“…ICT use in schools is becoming the norm and an increasing number of learners are exposed to ICT devices at school, ranging from cell phones, tablets to computer labs (Department of Basic Education, RSA, 2012;de Lange, 2012). Currently, many parents and teachers do not have the capacity or self-confidence to address cyber risk, with the result that problems such as cyber-bullying are a major concern (Cross et al, 2016;de Lange & von Solms, 2012). cyber-safety is a critical issue in various (developing) countries in Africa (Kortjan & von Solms, 2014), but this paper focuses on the situation in South Africa.…”

Incidencia del ciberbullying en adolescentes de 11 a 17 años en Portugal

“…: Chester et al, 2015;Conway, Gomez-Garibello, Talwar, y Shariff, 2016;Cross et al, 2016;Ferreira, Simão, Ferreira, Souza, y Francisco, 2016;Meter & Bauman, 2015;Rice et al, 2015;Sosa y Capafóns, 2015), especialmente tras la irrupción de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación en todas las esferas de nuestra sociedad (Amado, Matos, Pessoa, y Jäger, 2009;Garaigordobil, 2011;Giménez, Hunter, Durkin, Arnáiz, & Maquilón, 2015;Lucas, Pérez de Albéniz, y Giménez, 2016).…”