An Evidence-based Approach for Bullying Prevention

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ABSTRACT An Evidence-based Serious Game Approach for Bullying Prevention Bullying, in its most familiar form, is a serious public health concern. This is especially true during the middle-school years, a transition period when bullying increases. Cyberbullying, an electronic evolution of face- to-face bullying, is willful and repeated harm inflicted through computers, cell phones and other electronic devices to threaten, harass, embarrass, or socially exclude another. Both victims and offenders of bullying and cyberbullying are more likely to have low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, depression, substance use, and lower academic achievement. The proposed Phase II SBIR application requests 36 months of funding to develop and test bullying and cyberbullying prevention materials, including interactive classroom sessions and corresponding serious games, based on the evidence-based substance abuse prevention approach called Life Skills Training (LST). The LST prevention model teaches youth personal self-management skills, social skills, drug refusal skills, and other life skills needed to successfully navigate 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. However, LST does not currently address any forms of bullying or cyberbullying. The proposed prevention materials for middle school bullying and cyberbullying will (1) utilize both interactive classroom sessions and serious/educational games (digital games used to educate in an entertaining format); (2) positively change social norms surrounding bullying and cyberbullying; (3) challenge positive expectancies about bullying and cyberbullying; (4) enhance protective factors by building social, self-regulation, and relationship skills through interactive learning and behavioral rehearsal; and (5) include booster sessions. In Phase I, we developed classroom and serious game prototype materials and pilot tested them for feasibility, usability, and overall appeal in a series of focus groups and key informant interviews with middle school students and teachers. We achieved all Phase I milestones. During Phase II, we propose to develop the full intervention and test it in a rigorous national randomized controlled trial with 30 middle/junior high schools. The goal of this research is to effectively address bullying and cyberbullying perpetration and victimization by adapting the evidence-based LST prevention model to include new classroom sessions and a corresponding serious game for each grade in middle school. The proposed product has the potential to fill a gap in the preventive intervention tools currently available to schools, which can be widely disseminated throughout the country using existing marketing and dissemination channels. If effective, the proposed prevention products can efficiently decrease multiple problem behaviors among youth, including bullying, cyberbullying as well as substance abuse, and reduce the adverse health and mental health consequences of these behaviors.