The Short-term Effects of a Cyberbullying Prevention Intervention for Parents of Middle School Students.

This study experimentally evaluated the short-term effects of the Arizona Attorney General's cybersafety promotion presentation, a key component of which is cyberbullying prevention. Fifty-one parents of children attending a middle school in the southwestern United States participated in the study. Results reveal parents who viewed the presentation believed their children to be more susceptible to cyberbullying, and indicated that they were more likely to talk to their children about saving evidence, not retaliating, and telling an adult compared to parents who had not viewed the presentation. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Outcome evaluation results of school-based cybersafety promotion and cyberbullying prevention intervention for middle school students.

Guided largely by the Extended Parallel Process Model, the Arizona Attorney General's Social Networking Safety Promotion and Cyberbullying Prevention presentation attempts to shape, change, and reinforce middle school students' perceptions, attitudes, and intentions related to these important social issues. This study evaluated the short-term effects of this presentation in a field experiment using a posttest-only control-group design with random assignment to conditions. A total of 425 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at a public middle school in a large Southwestern city participated in this study. Results reveal several interesting trends across grade levels regarding cyberbullying perpetration and victimization, and concerning access to various communication technologies. The intervention had the hypothesized main effect on eight of the dependent variables under investigation. Examination of condition by grade interaction effects offered further support for an additional four hypotheses (i.e., the intervention positively affected or reversed a negative trend on four dependent variables in at least one grade). Ideas and implications for future social networking safety promotion and cyberbullying prevention interventions are discussed.