Reducing cyberbullying: A theory of reasoned action‐based video prevention program for college students

Abstract

Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of cyberbullying prevention/intervention programs. The goals of the present study were to develop a Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)-based video program to increase cyberbullying knowledge (1) and empathy toward cyberbullying victims (2), reduce favorable attitudes toward cyberbullying (3), decrease positive injunctive (4) and descriptive norms about cyberbullying (5), and reduce cyberbullying intentions (6) and cyberbullying behavior (7). One hundred sixty-seven college students were randomly assigned to an online video cyberbullying prevention program or an assessment-only control group. Immediately following the program, attitudes and injunctive norms for all four types of cyberbullying behavior (i.e., unwanted contact, malice, deception, and public humiliation), descriptive norms for malice and public humiliation, empathy toward victims of malice and deception, and cyberbullying knowledge significantly improved in the experimental group. At one-month follow-up, malice and public humiliation behavior, favorable attitudes toward unwanted contact, deception, and public humiliation, and injunctive norms for public humiliation were significantly lower in the experimental than the control group. Cyberbullying knowledge was significantly higher in the experimental than the control group. These findings demonstrate a brief cyberbullying video is capable of improving, at one-month follow-up, cyberbullying knowledge, cyberbullying perpetration behavior, and TRA constructs known to predict cyberbullying perpetration. Considering the low cost and ease with which a video-based prevention/intervention program can be delivered, this type of approach should be considered to reduce cyberbullying.

Efficacy of Cyberbullying Prevention on Somatic Symptoms—Randomized Controlled Trial Applying a Reasoned Action Approach

“…() in accordance with guidelines proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (), asking students to rate their assumptions about how many significant others (e.g., closest friends, classmates, people of their age) perform or condone cyberbullying on a 5‐point‐scale (1 = none of them to 5 = almost all of them/all of them ). Previous cyberbullying‐related studies that used similar (Doane et al., ; Heirman & Walrave, ) or identical scales (Lazuras et al., ), demonstrated the validity of this instrument in this context. In the current study, the internal consistency was α = .70 at the first measurement occasion and α = .66 at the second measurement occasion.…”

“…There are a large number of studies applying the same semantic differentials, supporting the reliability and predictive validity of the instrument for assessing attitudes related to health behaviors. Similarly, recent studies have demonstrated the appropriateness of the measure for the assessment of attitudes toward cyberbullying (e.g., Doane et al., ; Heirman & Walrave, ; Lazuras et al., ). In the present study, the internal consistency was α = .81 at the first measurement occasion and α = .88 at the second measurement occasion.…”

Efectos de un programa de competencias emocionales en la prevención de cyberbullying en bachillerato

“…Las primeras evaluaciones de otros programas para la atención de cyberbullying (Chibnall, Wallace, Leitch y Lunhofer, 2006;Doane, 2011;Doane et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2013) impactaron solo en algunos de los indicadores que consideraron. Se retomó el caso del Brief Internet Cyberbullying Prevention Program, que ha realizado dos evaluaciones sobre su efi cacia, la primera de ellas (Doane, 2011) detectó un aumento de conocimiento del fenómeno y disminución de perpetración y actitudes favorecedoras de cyberbullying, pero no evidenció mejora en la empatía hacia las víctimas; posteriormente se revisó y probó el programa (Doane et al, 2016) y se confi rmó la mejora en los tres indicadores que ya había detectado la primera evaluación, además de que se incrementó la empatía hacia las víctimas.…”

“…Tal es el caso de los programas como Let's Fight It Together: What We All Can Do to Prevent Cyberbullying (Childnet, 2007), que recurre a videos cortos; Cyber Bullying: A Prevention Curriculum (Kowalski y Agatston, 2008), que consta de ocho sesiones; Brief Internet Cyberbullying Prevention Program (Doane, 2011;Doane et al, 2016), un programa breve en formato de video y las Webquest (Lee et al, 2013) desarrolladas en ocho sesiones de 45 minutos cada una.…”

“…En cuanto a la prevención y la intervención del cyberbullying, se han propuesto guías, pautas de acción y de recomendaciones para trabajar con alumnos, profesores y padres (Aftab, 2006;Flores y Casal, 2009 (Doane, 2011;Doane, Kelley y Pearson, 2016) y Webquest (Lee, Zi-Pei, Svanström y Dalal, 2013).…”