Using Digital Health Technology to Prevent Bullying and Cyberbullying among Elementary School Students

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ABSTRACT Bullying and cyberbullying are highly prevalent forms of aggressive behavior among youth of all ages and have a wide variety of negative social and mental health consequences. Bullying in all its forms involves persistent and intentional threatening, aggressive or verbally abusive behavior directed toward others at relative disadvantage. These behaviors share a similar set of risk and protective factors with early-stage substance use, therefore a single intervention approach may efficiently address both behaviors. Indeed, a fruitful way to extend the benefits of evidence-based prevention is to adapt the most effective interventions so they address shared and unique risk and protective factors for multiple related behaviors. The proposed SBIR Fast-Track application requests funding to develop and evaluate a multicomponent intervention to prevent bullying behavior by adapting the evidence-based Life Skills Training (LST) elementary school program. LST teaches youth personal self-management skills, social skills, drug refusal skills, and other life skills needed to successfully navigate key developmental tasks, increase resilience, and facilitate healthy psychosocial development. The LST program has been extensively tested and found to effectively prevent substance use in a series of randomized controlled trials with behavioral effects reported in over 30 peer-reviewed publications. The intervention for the proposed SBIR will teach young people how to respond to in-person and online bullying from the perspectives of perpetrator, victim, and bystander. We propose to develop: (1) bullying-specific classroom sessions to supplement the existing LST elementary school program; (2) an immersive serious (educational) video game to provide opportunities for students to apply life skills in preventing bullying and other high-risk situations in a gamified format; (3) e-learning modules that provide parents with strategies and resources to support anti- bullying lessons taught in school; and, (4) e-learning modules for educators and support professionals that emphasize the importance of a school-wide anti-bullying approach that teaches prosocial behavior and encourages respect for peers. In Phase I, we will develop prototypes of bullying-specific classroom sessions, a video game level, and teacher and parent training materials to test them for feasibility, usability, and overall appeal. In Phase II, we will complete the development of all program materials and conduct a rigorous randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the prevention program. Elementary schools (N=30) will be randomized to either an intervention group that receives the prevention program or a treatment-as-usual control group that receives existing school health education. At the end of the initial intervention period, and at one- and two-year follow-ups, we will compare both groups with respect to changes in behaviors, norms, attitudes, and knowledge regarding bullying, cyberbullying, and substance use behavior. The goal of this SBIR is to develop commercial- quality bullying prevention products that incorporate digital health technology and are flexible, effective, and easy-to-use, and can be widely-disseminated to elementary schools in the US.