Gradinger P, Yanagida T, Strohmeier D, Spiel C. Prevention of cyberbullying and cyber victimization: Evaluation of the ViSC social competence program. J Sch Violence. 2015;14(1):87-110.
Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): CLASSROOM, Adult-led Curricular Activities/Training, SCHOOL, Teacher/Staff Training
Intervention Description: It is well-documented that cyberbullying and victimization co-occur with traditional forms indicating that they share similar mechanisms. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the general antibullying program ViSC might also be effective in tackling these new forms of bullying.
Intervention Results: Utilizing a multiple group bivariate latent change score model controlling for traditional aggression, traditional victimization, and age, results demonstrate program effectiveness for cyberbullying (latent d = 0.39) and cyber victimization (latent d = 0.29) indicating that these behaviors reflect a systemic (school) problem.
Conclusion: The present study first of all showed that a general antibullying program is also effective in preventing cyberbullying and cyber victimization. The study also confirms important co-occurrences between cyberbullying, cyber victimization, traditional aggression and traditional victimization already reported in the literature (Kowalski et al., 2014). It was shown that traditional aggression is an important risk factor over time, because youth involved in traditional aggression show, despite the positive program effects for reducing cyberbullying, an increase in cyberbullying over time. In contrary, cyber victimization was rather unstable, because youth involved in cyber victimization show, despite the positive program effects for reducing cyber victimization, a decrease in cyber victimization over time (see also Gradinger, Strohmeier, Schiller, et al., 2012). In our interpretation, this study again showed that cyberbullying is “the tip of the iceberg” (Gradinger et al., 2009), and consequently whole school approaches are needed to tackle bullying as a systemic problem (Kowalski et al., 2014; Swearer & Espelage, 2004). Specific cyberbullying prevention programs are certainly valuable; however, the implementation of a holistic whole school approach might have the most return of investment on the long run.
Study Design: Cluster RCT: pretest-posttest
Setting: Austria
Population of Focus: Not specified
Data Source: Not specified
Sample Size: Total (N=2042) Intervention (n=1377); Control (n=665)
Age Range: Mean: 11.7
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