Bridging the Gap Between Theory, Innovation, and Practice in Bullying Prevention Programming

Introduction: Bullying is a prevalent form of youth violence, particularly in school settings. It is defined by aggressive behavior that occurs repeatedly and within the context of a power imbalance. Research shows that bullying increases in late childhood and peaks in early adolescence (Swearer et al., 2012).  Clearly, students need positive school environments in which they feel safe and secure. 

Our presentation describes how prevention researchers working with urban ethnic minority children integrated empirically-based theory and strategies with cutting edge cinematography and technology to develop an innovative multi-media 90 minute bullying prevention experience for 8^thgraders, which is called Free2B.  The presentation will focus upon the program theory that was used to guide intervention development and the production team in order to ensure that content, presentation, delivery, and evaluation were conducted in line with best practice. 

Methods: The program theory explicates how the primary intervention components (3D film, inspirational videos, and an interactive experience in which students participate in the program by responding to quiz questions about bullying using state of the art hand-held devices) are thought to impact both proximal (e.g., knowledge of bullying facts; prosocial attitudes about positive bystander behavior) and distal (e.g., increases in positive bystander behavior and collective action to prevent bullying) outcomes over time.  Further, a six week follow-up plan for helping schools integrate what students have learned into the school climate will be discussed.

Results:  Results of a pilot study, which involved 121 8^thgraders from two urban schools, will be presented.  All participants completed a 13-item pre-program questionnaire, participated in all components of the program, and completed a 13-item post-program questionnaire. A subset of youth (N = 33, 27%) completed an additional 12 pre- and post- questions and participated in a focus group.  Initial results suggest that students found Free2B to be extremely engaging and enjoyable, and that Free2B enhanced students’ knowledge of bullying facts, prosocial attitudes about bullying, and confidence in resolving conflicts.

Conclusion: Free2B highlights how researchers can collaborate with multi-media experts to develop engaging and scientifically-grounded prevention programs.  Challenges for researchers in trying to bridge the gap between theory, practice, and innovation will be highlighted, including the need for balancing the use of technology to engage students in learning best practice strategies in an entertaining way without depicting the violence they are used to seeing in Hollywood productions.