Examining the Link Between Implementation Fidelity, Quality, and Effectiveness of Teacher-Delivered Anti-Bullying Interventions in a Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study examined the relation between both implementation fidelity and quality and the outcomes of two different anti-bullying interventions targeting distinct processes involved in bullying: moral disengagement and social norms. In total, 34 French-speaking Belgian teachers from six elementary schools were trained to deliver either the moral disengagement or the social norms intervention to their Grade 4-6 students (N = 747, 50.4% boys) in a randomized controlled trial. Students reported their moral disengagement, perceived injunctive class norm toward bullying, and bullying behaviors in the fall and spring of the 2018-2019 school year. Teachers' implementation fidelity and quality were assessed through direct observation in each class by two independent raters with a satisfying interrater reliability. A multiplicative moderated mediation model using latent change scores revealed that both greater fidelity and quality amplified students' decrease in moral disengagement, which was accompanied by a decrease in bullying. Importantly, when quality was sufficient, fidelity did not matter. However, higher fidelity could compensate for a lack of quality. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant change in students' perceptions of the class injunctive norm, even under ideal implementation conditions. Alternative mediators should thus be considered. Because implementation by teachers inevitably fluctuates, anti-bullying program components should be evaluated under various implementation conditions to determine their cost-effectiveness ratio and to gain insights into how anti-bullying programs work.

The effectiveness of moral disengagement and social norms as anti-bullying components: A randomized controlled trial.

This three-armed randomized controlled trial examined how moral disengagement and social norms account for change in bullying behavior and their potential as targets of anti-bullying components within separate interventions among 1200 French-speaking Belgian elementary students (48% boys, 9-12 year-olds, 57 classes, nine schools) during 2018-2019 (no ethnicity data available). Mediation analysis revealed that students' moral disengagement successfully decreased (ß = -.46), which, in turn, reduced both bullying (ß = .33) and outsider behaviors (ß = .20), and increased defending (ß = -.10). Intervening on social norms decreased bullying (ß = -.18), but not through the perceived injunctive class norm as intended. Guidelines to open the "black box" of anti-bullying programs and determine the cost-effectiveness ratio of their components are provided.

Validation of the French version of the moral disengagement in bullying scale: Testing Bandura's conceptual model.

Although Bandura conceptualized moral disengagement as a global dimension encompassing a set of mechanisms, the validated factorial structures of the existing scales have not fully matched the conceptual model so far. The present study attempts to narrow the gap between the moral disengagement conceptual model and its measurement tools by testing five factorial structures based both on theory and previous empirical work. A sample of 1107 pupils from Grades 4 to 6 completed the French version of the Moral Disengagement in Bullying Scale (Fr-MDBS). Confirmatory factorial analyses revealed that a second-order factor structure, congruent with the conceptual model, was better than a single-factor and as good as a first-order multi-factorial structure. Results also supported both construct validity (gender comparison) and predictive validity of the scale. Moral disengagement mechanisms were associated with self- and peer-reported bullying and victimization, defender, and outsider behaviors. Euphemistic labeling, diffusion of responsibility, and distorting consequences were also related to bullying whereas moral justification and victim attribution were related to both bullying and victimization. Euphemistic labeling, diffusion of responsibility, distorting consequences, and victim attribution were negatively associated with defender behavior and positively related to outsider behavior. Advantageous comparison was not related to any of the examined variables. The Fr-MDBS seems to be a useful assessment tool to validly examine either the mechanisms or the global dimension of moral disengagement.