The efficacy and feasibility of the Arizona attorney general's school‐based cyber‐safety promotion and cyberbullying prevention intervention among middle school adolescents in Oman

• Published in: Psychology in the schools 2023-04, Vol.60 (4), p.1042-1059
• Main Authors: Damra, Jalal K., Omari, Omar Al
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Attitudes; Attorneys general; Behavior; Bullying; Computer Mediated Communication; Coping strategies; Counselors; Cyberbullying; cyberbullying prevention; Efficacy; Feasibility; Foreign Countries; Grade 7; Grade 8; Grade 9; Intervention; Middle School Students; Middle schools; Networking; Prevention; Prevention programs; Program Effectiveness; Protective factors; Risk behavior; Safety; School Activities; school‐based intervention; Social Media; social networking safety promotion; Social networks; Susceptibility; Teachers; Teenagers
• ISSN: 0033-3085; 1520-6807
• DOI: 10.1002/pits.22832

This study aimed to evaluate the short‐term effects of the social networking safety promotion and cyberbullying prevention presentation of the Arizona attorney general's guided by the extended parallel process model (EPPM). A quasi‐experimental (a pre‐posttest) was used with two groups with random assignment to intervention. A total of 389 adolescents in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades at two public middle schools in Muscat city were involved in the study procedures and randomly divided into two groups (the experimental group (n = 186) and the waiting list group (n = 203). The risk behavior diagnostic scale, behavioral intention and attitudes scale, coping strategies with cyberbullying scale, and self‐protection behavior intentions were used. Five separate presentations (each presentation was 60 min, one presentation per week) were introduced to the adolescents in the experimental group. The results supported the efficacy of the intervention in changing adolescents' attitudes and behavioral intentions against cyberbullying and promoting their security and safety during their use of social networks. Also, the intervention has a significant effect on the four EPPM components (susceptibility, severity, self‐efficacy, and self‐efficacy responses) and the participants learned coping skills to deal with potential cyberbullying incidents). Practitioner points School children must be protected from cyberbullying at schools by school teachers, counselors, and administrators. Counselors and other professionals in school can help children to cope with cyberbullying and promote their cyber safety and security by implementing specified interventions.