RPC Teacher-Based Program for Improving Coping Strategies to Deal with Cyberbullying

Annalisa Guarini, Damiano Menin, Laura Menabò and Antonella Brighi
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Annalisa Guarini: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Damiano Menin: Department of Education Studies “Giovanni Maria Bertin”, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Laura Menabò: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Antonella Brighi: Faculty of Education, Free University of Bolzano, 39042 Brixen-Bressanone, Italy

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: Background: Cyberbullying is a serious threat to public health and teachers can play a key role in its detection, prevention and intervention. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the RPC (“Relazioni per crescere”—Relationships to Grow) program, a short intervention, implemented at classroom level by trained teachers, aimed at improving awareness on cyberbullying and increasing proactive coping strategies to deal with cyberbullying behaviors. Method: The effectiveness of the RPC project was analyzed through an observational study (pre/post-intervention comparison), involving 898 Italian students of Lower Secondary schools (6th–8th grades). Results: Hierarchical logistic regression showed that after the intervention students were more likely to consider the different roles in cyberbullying (cyberbully, cybervictim, reinforce/assistant, defender and bystander/observer). In addition, hierarchical linear regressions highlighted an improvement of social coping and cognitive coping strategies after the intervention. Conclusions: RPC is a short, teacher-based program that can increase the awareness of cyberbullying among students and improves their effective coping strategies to address cyberbullying. Further research on the efficacy of short teacher-based programs would be worthwhile, given the limited financial and time resources of the schools, emphasizing the active and crucial role of teachers in tackling cyberbullying.

Keywords: cyberbullying; coping strategies; teacher based-intervention; adolescents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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