Anti-bullying programs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): A systematic review

    Anti-bullying programs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): a systematic review Annalaura Nocentini, Valentina Zambuto, Ersilia Menesini PII: DOI: Reference:

S1359-1789(15)00074-9 doi: 10.1016/j.avb.2015.05.012 AVB 917

To appear in:

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Received date: Accepted date:

30 March 2015 13 May 2015

Please cite this article as: Nocentini, A., Zambuto, V. & Menesini, E., Anti-bullying programs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): a systematic review, Aggression and Violent Behavior (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.avb.2015.05.012

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Anti-bullying programs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): a systematic review

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Annalaura Nocentini, Valentina Zambuto, Ersilia Menesini

Department of Educational Science and Psychology – University of Florence

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Tel: 39 055 2755019; Fax: 39 055-6236047

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Via San Salvi, 12 - Padiglione 26 - 50135 Firenze, Italy

Corresponding author: Annalaura Nocentini

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Email: [email protected]

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Abstract Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) constitute suitable tools for

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interventions with children and adolescents promoting their emotional, psychological and social

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wellbeing. Recently, in the field of bullying and cyberbullying prevention, some programs started to

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be implemented using the benefits offered by the virtual environments. The current paper aims to carry out a systematic review on anti-bullying ICT-mediated intervention, analyzing the characteristics of the main programs and the evidence of their effectiveness. The review conducted

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on three databases (PsycINFO, Scopus and PubMed) yielded 32 full text papers finally evaluated. Overall, considering the enormous development of digital tools and the importance of this experience for young students, the review underlines that ICT tools are generally under-used in

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prevention and intervention against bullying and cyberbullying (13 programs emerged from the search). In recent years some advances in this direction can be found with use of different ICTs

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(serious game, virtual reality, online platforms, internet activities, technological solution). The need for scientific studies on the effectiveness of these virtual interventions is evident from this review

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and necessary in order to assist practitioners, policy makers, and administrators in deciding which

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interventions can work or not and why.

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Keywords: bullying, cyberbullying, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), prevention, intervention, review.

Acknowledgement: The authors wish to thank Anna Pecorini for the work carried out in her master thesis

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Anti-bullying programs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): a systematic review

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Introduction

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ICT interventions in schools

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The great development that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had in the last years contributed to a cultural change involving economic and industrial activities as well as social and relational domains. Although the use of ICTs may present several risks (such as

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cyberbullying, grooming, online child pornography), it also provides several benefits apt to promote

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people's and children’s wellbeing.

Following the recent approach of Positive Technology (Riva, Banos, Botella, Wiederhold, Gaggioli, 2012), it is possible to use ICT to manipulate the quality of experience, with the goal of

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increasing emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. Technology manipulates our experience through its structuring (using goals, rules, and a feedback system), augmentation (multimodal and

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multisensory experiences) and replacement (simulating the physical presence in a synthetic world). Using these strategies it is possible to modify three features of our personal experience: the

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affective quality promoting the hedonic wellbeing (i.e. fostering positive emotional states, exposure therapy), the engagement and self-actualizing experiences promoting the eudaimonic wellbeing (i.e. transformation of flow, a person’s ability to exploit an optimal experience to identify and use new resources as stimuli of involvement), and connectedness between individuals, groups, and organizations promoting the social/interpersonal wellbeing (i.e. networked flow, individual and group flourishing through serious game) (Riva et al., 2012). Through which types of ICTs can these three characteristics be modified ? Virtual Reality, serious game and emerging mobile devices are capable of exploiting the potential of positive emotions (Argenton, Schek, and Mantovani, 2014). Internet, virtual reality, social networks, video-games, and serious games are all types of ICT capable of supporting the emergence of a flow state and of engaging people more actively in what they currently do, thus 3

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT promoting eudaimonic well-being (Argenton et al., 2014). Finally, more advanced ICT systems such as Groupware (technology based systems that assist groups of participants engaged in a

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common task, supporting communication, coordination, and collaboration), social software

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platforms (such as Enterprise 2.0 used within companies to facilitate the achievement of business

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objectives through the work on collaboration, communication and connectedness), crowdsourcing (an online distributed problem-solving and production model) are capable of empowering social presence promoting social wellbeing. Besides, other ICT technologies such as serious game can

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enhance the optimal functioning of the group and social integration; online social networking

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applications such as Facebook offer an efficient platform for socialization. In the field of education, the introduction of computer based interventions in US public schools did start in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Gustafson, Bosworth, Chewning, Hawkins,

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1987). In more recent years, virtual reality interventions have been used for the evaluation of attention deficit disorders, treatment of school phobia and anxiety testing, but also to teach

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prevention strategies for health-related behaviors such as sexuality or obesity and for interpersonal or behavior problems that usually appear in these contexts, such as bullying in schools (Carmona et

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al., 2011). Serious game as well constitutes a common ICT-mediated intervention in the field of education: serious games are used to learn traditional subjects (e.g., maths, science, geography, reading) but also for more sensitive, non-curricula subjects, including healthy eating, illegal substance abuse, healthy relationshisp, sex education and aggression (Bowen, Walker, Mawer, Holdsworth, Sorbring, Helsing, et al., 2014; Rubin-Vaughan, Pepler, Brown, Craig, 2011). The characteristics of serious game (multimodality, interactivity, complex narrative structure, social multiplayer use, playful action) make them particularly suitable to facilitate social and behavioral change affecting the motivational system, the comprehension and knowledge acquisition, and attitudes (Klimmt, 2009). Overall, the use of ICTs –mediated interventions as a learning method has several advantages in respect to traditional methods: 4

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they allow users to simulate real world experiences and practice new skills;

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they are suited to request, organize, process, and quickly update information from data

they can be programmed to make this information selectively available to the user at a

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time, speed, and format of presentation controlled by the user

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3)

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bases, literature, and experts as well as from the user;

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they are attractive to children and adolescents

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they permit multimodal learning or facilitation of skills transference processes learned

they permit to tailor the intervention on the personal characteristics of the users. The

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6)

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from one context to another.

computer tailoring combines strategies and information capable of reaching a specific person by providing personalized feedback based on the unique characteristics of a person

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they offer protected environments which allows children to explore “emotionally hot”

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situations ensuring privacy and protective distancing. They offer the possibility to address

8)

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sensitive subjects confidentially and anonymously they allow a cognitive and emotional learning process mediated by experiential

9)

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activities which is more free from social pressure as compared to face-to-face experiences they use more flexible instruments as compared to traditional intervention. These

flexible interaction patterns between the user and the software allow students to practice skills or review information as often as they wish. After practicing, users can return periodically for a refresher or to learn new skills. All these characteristics make the ICTs suitable tools and contexts to be used for the interventions with children and adolescents. The current review aims to analyse the use of ICT for interventions on bullying and victimization.

Bullying interventions

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Current literature on bullying intervention tries to focus on effective programs capable to reduce the prevalence of the phenomenon and its consequences. In the latest meta-analysis on the

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efficacy of interventions to tackle bullying, Ttofi and Farrington (2011) found that the programs

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implemented and evaluated are often capable of counteracting the phenomenon reducing bullying

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of about 20–23% and victimization of 17–20%. Another recent systematic review (Evans, Fraser, Cotter, 2014) reported that up to 45% of the studies showed no program effects on bullying perpetration and about 30% showed no program effects on victimization.

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The Authors emphasized the need to acquire a deeper knowledge of the most effective

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components of the programs, and for future research to have a more rigorous design and higher methodological standards along with theoretically grounded intervention models. Scholars are encouraged to evaluate the programs rigorously. Specifically, it is important to follow the

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recommended standards in order to have evidence-based programs (Eisner & Malti, 2012; Flay et al., 2005). In fact, according to the standards of evidence proposed by the Society of Prevention

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Science an efficacious intervention (1) should have been tested in at least two rigorous trials that (2) involved defined samples from defined populations, (3) used psychometrically sound measures and

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data collection procedures; (4) analysed data with rigorous statistical approaches; (5) showed consistent positive effects (without serious iatrogenic effects); and (6) reported at least one significant long-term follow-up. Only few studies complied with these standards of evidence defined in the prevention science literature (Eisner & Malti, 2012; Ttofi & Farrington, 2011) and in bullying literature. This paucity is even more evident in relation to the recent expression of bullying in the new virtual context: the so called “cyberbullying”. Traditional approaches to bullying proposed different types of face-to-face interventions (i.e. curriculum, school policies, teachers interventions, peer mediation, peer education, specific interventions targeted at the most aggressive students). Recently, also in this field of bullying and cyberbullying prevention some programs started to be implemented using the benefits offered by the virtual environments (i.e. virtual and serious games, virtual scenarios, web forum, social 6

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT networks...). Skill-building computer games have been developed to achieve more general violence prevention goals for elementary and secondary school students. However, bullying requires specific

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educational lessons because it represents a specific social problem involving group dynamics and

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group roles and a relationship between the bully and the victim based on power imbalance

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(Olweus, 1993; Menesini, 2003). More common are the ICTs-mediated interventions on cyberbulllying given its digital nature.

Computer-delivered interventions have a relevant impact and several benefits on the

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prevention of bullying. For example, literature showed that the characteristic of the computer

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tailoring enhances behavioral change. Tailoring can increase the efficacy of an intervention as well as the user satisfaction and completion of the program by allowing for a more engaging personalized experience (Ryan and Lauver, 2002). An antibullying prevention program tailored on

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personal characteristics (i.e. level of antibullying attitudes, level of moral disengagement, level of empathy…) might result more effective as compared to programs which are equal for all the

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students. Other characteristics of ICT interventions could potentially have an impact on bullying prevention: the protected environments which allow children to explore “emotionally hot”

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situations , or a cognitive learning free from social pressure. Given the relevance the social group has for bullying dynamics, a first step should attempt to give awareness and to manage the emotions and beliefs related to bullying without the group pressure either for victims and bystanders. Given the relevance of this new and challenging area of intervention, the present study will present results of a first systematic review of ICTs-mediated interventions on bullying and cyberbullying.

The present study

Starting from the above considerations, the present study aims to explore the presence in literature of ICT-mediated interventions to prevent and to tackle bullying. Besides, the study aims 7

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT to evaluate whether and to what extent these virtual interventions are effective according to the standards of evidence (Flay et al. 2005). We decided to limit our analysis on a systematic review

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instead of a meta-analyses because a preliminary research on the main databases revealed a very

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limited number of studies conducted on that issue and in some cases without statistic data.

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Overall, the present study aims to: 1) conduct a sistematic review on anti-bullying ICTmediated intervention; 2) to analyse the characteristics of the main programs; 3) to show evidence

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of their effectiveness.

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Methods

Search strategy and study selection Inclusion and exclusion criteria

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Two inclusion criteria were defined: 1) selection of studies about prevention and intervention against bullying and cyberbullying in a virtual environment; 2) scientific availability of

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studies (i.e. scientific journals and conference papers). The following studies were excluded: studies of basic research with no intervention or

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prevention programs, the conference proceedings without conference papers available in databases, studies from grey literature, all the interventions without any specific online/virtual/digital tools. Authors were contacted for more information about the program when some characteristics were not fully clear and more details were needed.

Search strategy Three criteria guided our search strategy: 1.

Databases: PsycINFO, Scopus and PubMed databases were searched for publications

since 1996. 2.

Keywords: we defined three thematic domains, which are Environment –

Phenomenon - Intervention, and within each domain we defined the following keywords: 8

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Environment: serious game, computer game, digital game, technology(ies), helper

programs, virtual, online games, online, virtual learning environment, application, simulation,

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synthetic character; Phenomenon: bullying, cyberbullying, antibullying;

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Intervention: intervention, education, prevention, learning, social skill learning, game

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based learning, human computer interactions, intelligent tutoring, experimental, engagement, knowledge, against.

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The keywords for each domain were combined using AND (example: (es. serious game and

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bullying and intervention, serious game and bullying and education). Search fields involved were: Abstract for PsycINFO, Title/abstract/Key words for

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Coding system

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Scopus, and Title/abstract for PubMed.

Name

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Outcome behavior: bullying vs bullying and other forms of aggression and violence

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Target population: preschool (2-5 years), school age (6-11 years), adolescence –

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

young adulthood (from 12 years) 

Type of ICT tool used in the program: e.g. serious game, virtual environment, online

platform, online activities such as forum, online counselling,. 

Multifaceted interventions (face-to-face + ICT-mediated component) vs Single ICT-

component intervention 

Effectiveness: we defined that a program presented some evidence of effectiveness

when it showed significant improvements in at least one study through an experimental design with a randomized control trial (pre-test and post-test and two groups, experimental and control) or a quasi-experimental design (pre-test and post-test and two groups, but no randomized control trial). 9

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Results

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[Insert Figure 1]

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The database search yielded 840 hits, from which 461 duplicates were deleted (see Figure

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1). Next, 338 were deleted after reading the abstract: in particular the majority of them were deleted as it was basic research (no intervention was presented), a part presented general interventions without a virtual component, and a small part was deleted as it was not in English and did not focus

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on bullying. 41 full text papers were evaluated and 9 papers were excluded. Two of them were still

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basic research (in the previous step they were evaluated as intervention because they suggested an intervention). Three of them were related to face-to-face interventions without any virtual component (PEACEPACK; CONRED): the authors of these interventions sent us this information.

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Finally, four other papers were deleted because they presented or suggested a general approach to the intervention. Liang (2010), for instance, suggests developing anti-cyber-bullying computer

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programs, which may detect bullying messages and send warning messages to the bullies and comforting messages to the victims.

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[Insert Table 1]

Overall, 32 final papers were included in the present review. As we can see from Table 1 and Table 2, these 32 papers are related to 13 intervention models. In the next section we will briefly describe the characteristics of each program and summarize them on Table 2. [Insert Table 2]

FearNot! FearNot! (Fun with Empathic Agents to achieve Novel Outcomes in Teaching) (Paiva et al., 2004), is an immersive learning intervention aimed to help victims to escape victimization, and to reduce overall bullying and victimization. The program was designed to enhance the problem 10

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT solving skills of current or potential victims of bullying by encouraging students to generate and evaluate a wide range of responses to bullying in a safe environment that ensured privacy. The

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interactive Virtual Learning Environment includes a virtual school populated by 3D animated pupils

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who assumed the different bullying roles (i.e. bully, victim, bystander). The pupils have artificial

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intelligence: they can learn by their experience and develop successful coping strategies in the course of the episodes (Aylett et al., 2006). After a bullying episode, there is an interactive episode where the user can interact with the virtual victim via an instant messenger interface suggesting

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coping strategies. The empathic engagement between the user and the victim assumes a central role

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to create responsibility and interest in the user. The characters choose whether to follow the user’s advice or not: this decision is based on their previous experience, current mental states and goals. After that, users can observe the consequences of their suggested strategy. The main strength of this

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software is that the characters’ behaviours are not entirely pre-scripted but emerge from the interaction situations and the characters’ goals and mental states. Children interact individually with

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the software for several times; they can follow the story using the same computer all the time. Teachers have only to assist children when they report comprehension problems.

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The effectiveness of the program has been tested in different studies with consistent samples (RCT) of children in primary schools of the UK and Germany (Sapouna et al., 2010; Vannini et al., 2010). Results showed a short-term effect on escaping victimization for a priori identified victims (victims in the intervention group were more likely to escape victimization at the first follow-up compared with victims in the control group - adjusted RR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.02–1.81) and a shortterm overall prevention effect for UK children. Besides, FearNot! helped non-involved children to become defenders in the German sub-sample.

SMART Talk SMART Talk (Students Managing Anger and Resolution Together) is a computer-based multimedia program designed to teach adolescents how to solve interpersonal problems without 11

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT violence (Bosworth et al., 1996). SMART Talk has 3 major components: Anger Management, Perspective Taking, and Dispute Resolution. The first component uses animation, interactive

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assessment interviews, and games to teach students to recognize the cycle of anger, the triggers of

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anger and the strategies for handling anger and conflict. In the second component, students have to

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view anger situations from the perspectives of all participants in the situation, through a game format. A modeling technique is used presenting interviews with high school peer mediators and

students to generate solutions to their conflict.

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celebrities that manage conflict. The final component is an interactive mediation process that guides

Evidence of effectiveness has been showed through a RCT: the intervention was successful

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in diminishing students’ beliefs supporting violence and increasing their intentions to use nonviolent strategies (Bosworth et al., 2000), although any change in aggressive behaviours has

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been found.

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Mii-School

Mii-School is a Virtual Reality Simulator aimed to early evaluate the presence of different

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risk behaviors such as bullying, substance use, peer relational problems. This program aims to be relevant on prevention, as it provides the possibility of knowing what persons would be in a risk situation and their responses in the above contexts (Carmona et al., 2010). Adolescents watched 17 scenes related to bullying, drug addiction, family life, capacity for attention in class and integration in social groups. In relation to the bullying scenes, the student had to choose their responses starting from a series of predefined choices: feeling indifferent to the bullies, protesting, responding ironically, running away in fear, facing up to them or feeling ashamed. Unfortunately no evidence of effectiveness has been showed until now for this program.

QUEST for the Golden Rule

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT QUEST for the Golden Rule is an anti-bullying prevention and intervention program composed by a web-based game, guides for teachers on software use, targeted curricula and follow-

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up activities. Students are encouraged to participate in school tasks and in additional activities at

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home (Rubin-Vaughan, Pepler, Brown, & Craig , 2011).

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The interaction between children and the animated characters provides them the opportunity to learn and practice social skills and try out different strategies to cope with bullying. Students cannot move on from a social problem solving situation until they have provided a prosocial

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solution accepted by the structure of the game. Three modules have been designed each addressing

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a different topic related to bullying prevention: Bark Academy, Mission to Mars and Ghoul School. In the first module, students are invited to attend Bark Academy, a dog school where different types of bullying are present and where they help solve cases of bullying by using the concept of The

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Golden Rule. The second module teaches students about the social skills involved in making friends. Finally, the third module addresses the important issue of how to respond when faced with

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bullying situations and empowers students to safely refuse and report bullying. Evidence of effectiveness was not showed given that the study was conducted without any

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control group condition. However, comparing pre-test and post-test conditions in the experimental group, authors showed that children’s knowledge of bullying and their identification of strategies to prevent bullying improved significantly (Rubin-Vaughan, Pepler, Brown, & Craig , 2011). The majority of children reported that they enjoyed the game and felt confident that they could help solve bullying problems.

NoTrap! NoTrap! (Noncadiamointrappola! which means “Let’s not fall into the trap!”) program (Menesini, Nocentini, & Palladino, 2012; Palladino, Nocentini, Menesini, in press; Menesini, Palladino, Nocentini, 2015) is a school-based universal intervention which makes use of a peer-led approach to prevent and combat both traditional bullying and cyberbullying. The intervention works 13

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT online and offline with a sequence of two main phases. The first phase of the program is managed by adults (psychologists, experts) and it is launched and carried out in school contexts. The second

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phase is led by peer educators, a group of students that after a specific training assume a role of

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responsibility both in their classroom and online. Specifically, peer educators enhance awareness

contexts.

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online

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educators

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and provide support in the virtual context and use a more cooperative approach in face-to-face animate

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webpage

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(http://www.squarciagola.net/cyberbullismo/) and moderate the web forum, they manage the online

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threats and they support people who request help: they activate some lines of discussion through the

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forum and upload materials and interventions produced on the topic. Besides, they work as Facebook group publisher: the Facebook group complements the webpage forum (to be used to communicate with online peer educators and to spread out the possibility for everyone to

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anonymously ask for a help on the webpage). Although evidence of effectiveness has been showed for the NoTrap! program as a whole

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program, no evidence of effectiveness related to the specific component of online activities has been reported (Palladino et al. in press). Evidence of effectiveness for the whole program has been

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showed through two quasi-experimental trials that involved different samples of adolescents attending the first year of high school. Intervention significantly predicted the change over time in all targeted variables: victimization, bullying, cybervictimization, and cyberbullying. The experimental group showed a significant decrease over time in these variables while no change has been found in the control group. Besides, significant long-term effects were found at the follow up six months later. From a descriptive point of view, authors showed that during the first trial (2011-2012) 10 new treads were opened and 66 answers were given in the forum: they were displayed from 180 to 1464 times at the end on the program. During the second trial (2012-2013) 9 threads were opened and 52 answers were given: they were displayed from 167 to 1311 times at the end of the program. The topics of the threads were about: incidents of bullying and cyberbullying from the perspective 14

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT of victims (21%) and bystanders (16%), misunderstandings about the incidents (21%), and how a

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victim can cope with the situations (11%) (Menesini, Palladino, Nocentini, 2015).

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KiVa

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The KiVa program is an anti-bullying prevention and intervention program: it involves both universal actions targeted at all students, and indicated actions targeted at students involved in a bullying episode. KiVa universal actions include a series of students lessons given by classroom

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teachers and computer games. The main aims of the student lessons are to raise awareness of the

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role bystanders play in the bullying process, to increase empathic understanding of the victim, and to provide safe strategies to support and defend the victims (Salmivalli e tal., 2010). Although the computer games can be played independently by the Kiva program, they are aimed to reinforce the

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knowledge and the skills students have acquired in class during KiVa lessons. The setting of the KiVa game is a KiVa virtual school: KiVa game involves five levels each including three modules

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that are I Know, I Can, I Do. In the first module students learn what bullying is and they can examine what they have learnt during lessons; game-like quizzes ask students questions about the

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contents of the lessons and students can test themselves in relation to different skills (e.g. selfefficacy in resisting to the group pressure) . In the second module students practice the skills they have learnt (i.e. they make decision about how to respond to difficult situations): the player has to choose how to behave from different options available. At certain points of the narration the player can read the minds of the other character (i.e. the victim) to see how they feel. Based on these cues and on how the episode proceeds the player can also change his/her behavior. The third module is aimed to encourage students to make use of their knowledge and skills in real-life situations by asking them to report which KiVa rules they have succeeded in putting into practice. Although evidence of effectiveness has been showed for the KiVa as a whole program, no evidence of effectiveness related to the specific component of KiVa game has been reported. The effects of KiVa antibullying program as a whole have been evaluated in several studies based on a 15

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT large randomized controlled trial (Kärnä et al., 2013) and on the nationwide roll-out of the program (Kärnä et al., 2011). The findings showed that KiVa significantly reduced both victimization and

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bullying, and it has also secondary effects on psychological symptoms and school climate.

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For the game component the authors published a descriptive survey on children’s perception

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of the game (Poskiparta, Kaukiainen, Pöyhönen and Salmivalli, 2012). Half of the students reported to have played the game only in school and 10% only outside the school and 40% both in and out of the school. Besides, victims of bullying played the game more often as compared to bullies and not-

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involved. Overall, girls, younger students, and victims of bullying perceived the game more

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positively and helpful to learn how to cope with bullying problems.

Online Pestkoppenstoppen

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Online Pestkoppenstoppen (Stop Bullies Online/Stop Online Bullies) is a web-based tailored intervention aimed to reduce the number of cyberbullying victims and their symptoms of depression

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and anxiety, by teaching them how to cope in an effective manner (Jacobs, Völlink, Dehue, & Lechner (2014). The program consists of an online platform where victims of cyberbullying have

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access and through their personal page they: (a) can proceed with the sessions of advice; (b) can find for each advice pictures, video- clips, comics, summaries, formed helpful thoughts, plans and sentences to use; and (c) has access to the extra tailored social skill lessons. Three sessions of advice were included: (1) Think strong, feel better: according to Rational Emotive (Behavioral) Therapy this session is aimed to raise awareness of the relation between an irrational thought, feeling and behavior, and to replace irrational thoughts with more rational thoughts; (2) Stop the bully now!: the user receives information about the dynamics of online and offline bullying situations and general training on coping strategies; and (3) You are doing great, can you do better?: the user receives feedback and if necessary adjusts the plans. The pieces of advice have the characteristics to be tailored to the users’ personal and psychological features: for that reason each

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT advice is preceded by several questionnaires measuring tailoring and effect variables. Each advice takes approximately 45 minutes to complete: overall, the whole process is spread over three months.

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The program has been designed following an evidence informed design (Jacobs et al., 2014)

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but no evidence of effectiveness has been showed yet.

Friendly Attac

“Friendly ATTAC” (ATTAC = Adaptive Technological Tools Against Cyberbullying) is a

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Flemish inter-disciplinary project aimed to investigate how ICT-related tools can be effectively used

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in health interventions with regard to cyberbullying amongst youngsters (Van Cleemput, Vandebosch, Poels, Bastiaensens, DeSmet, De Bourdeaudhuij, 2015; Van Broeckhoven & De Troyer, 2013). Within this project the development of a digital serious game to combat

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cyberbullying in the first and second grade of secondary schools was included. The game is still in an early phase of development: a concept test has been performed in order to provide the

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researchers with a lot of information on how to improve the current materials, and on what needs to be taken into account when developing new program materials (Van Cleemput, Vandebosch, Poels,

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Bastiaensens, DeSmet, De Bourdeaudhuij, in press).

WebQuest

This is not a standardized program but it is a unique intervention conducted in a middle school in Los Angeles (Brewer, 2011). The WebQuest intervention was created using iWeb, a web design tool provided by Apple with the aim to help students construct their own understandings of cyberbullying. The WebQuest is an inquiry-based lesson on the Internet (Dodge, 1995). WebQuests are framed around a scenario in which the students take on a role to complete a task. For that intervention students had to play the role of an investigative journalist researching on cyberbullying for a newspaper. The WebQuest in this intervention contained five sections: 1) pre-test evaluation and introduction: it provides the context of the narrative scenario in which the participants will 17

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT engage; 2) task: the task for the students is to learn more about cyberbullying by viewing multimedia resources on the Internet; 3) process: they receive explicit directions about what to do in

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the WebQuest; 4) resources: videos, stories, quiz; 5) post-test evaluation.

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Evidence of effectiveness was not showed given that the study was conducted without any

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control group condition. However, comparing pre-test and post-test conditions in the experimental group authors showed that the WebQuest treatment was highly effective in increasing middleschool students’ awareness of cyberbullying and its dangers, knowledge of cyberbullying and a

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more articulated definition of the phenomenon (Brewer, 2011).

The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is a serious game about safer Internet developed by Greek elementary school

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students through Kodu, which is a visual programming tool especially designed for introducing children to programming principles (Choleva, Simeon, Filis, Metefas, & Patrikakis, 2013). The

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game world is a labyrinth whose corridors represent the chaotic Internet connections. The player is a student who needs to use the Internet in order to write his school assignment: at the beginning he

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is at home and has to get to school after having acquired all the necessary information for his essay. While moving through the labyrinth the user finds useful material for his essay but at the same time he has to face several threats (i.e. unknown internet users ask for his personal data). The player has to get the Internet protection programs or ask for his teacher’s help in order to repulse those attacks. Although it cannot be considered an evaluation study, a post-test questionnaire indicated that all the children wouldn’t share personal information, such as name, age or home address to other unknown users online, 76% of them wouldn’t take part in online contests if they weren’t sure about the safety characteristics and 71% would ask the opinion of a parent or teacher when they find themselves in a similar situation.

Empathic Virtual Buddy (Embodied Conversational Agents - ECAs) 18

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT This is not a standardized program but it is a single experiment conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of an online intervention aimed to offer support to victims of cyberbullying (Van Der

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Zwaan, Geraerts, Dignum, & Jonker, 2012). Given that the online counseling with the format of

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one-on-one is very demanding, this intervention aims to automate this kind of support to reach

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more victims. The virtual empathic buddy tries to comfort victims of cyberbullying using the Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) that is a user interface consisting of a virtual character that interacts with users based on the principles of face-to-face communication. When a child feels

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uncomfortable because he/she was victimized, he/she can turn to the buddy for emotional support

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and practical advice on how to deal with the situation. The buddy is a virtual character displayed for non-verbal communication: besides, verbal communication between the user and the buddy is facilitated through the chat window.

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A cross-sectional experimental design showed that the target audience recognizes the emotional cues expressed by the buddy. Answers to the open questions also demonstrated the

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participants’ positive attitude towards the buddy and the context.

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Virtual Environments (SL)

This is not a standardized program but it presents the development of educational scenarios/simulations using virtual world avatars similar to those used in Second Life (SL) (Wright, Burnham, Inman, & Ogorchock, 2009). The scenarios/simulations are aimed to increase awareness of cyberbullying and to educate adolescents on the phenomenon. Based on focus groups conducted with adolescents, it was decided that one scenario needed to be behavioral in nature (i.e., girls sending hurtful messages via MySpace) and another educational in nature (i.e., student visits the school counselor after a Facebook joke got out of hand). The latter scenario included an interactive educational component at the end to get students to think about cyberbullying in the post scenario moments. The cyberbullying scenarios/simulations were developed in SL using virtual simulations: the scenarios were then recorded in order to be played by others. 19

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Student evaluators agreed that the virtual presentations were realistic and that the messages of the scenarios were clear: “Do not take cyberbullying into your own hands. Tell an adult” (Wright

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et al., 2009; p. 40).

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MISAAC

MISAAC presents a technical solution to the problem of harassment through Instant

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messaging, proposing an Instant messaging tool for Cyberbullying Detection (Pérez, Valdez, De Guadalupe Cota Ortiz, Barrera, & Pérez, 2012). In particular this tool is based on the architecture of

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ARSEC-AMS agents (Perez et al., 2012) to detect threats and verbal abuse to which a child is usually exposed, taking into account the behavior of the aggressors and techniques of content

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analysis of messages exchanged through chats.

Discussion

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The present review represents a first attempt to analyze the use of ICTs for the prevention and intervention against bullying and cyberbullying. We decided to focus our review on the

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interventions that appeared on the main scientific databases because we were interested in prevention and intervention programs which showed some evidence of scientific effectiveness or at least which were created with a scientific method. For that reason, it is possible that other relevant anti-bullying programs making use of ICTs might exist but without any evidence of scientific structure or at least not reported in the official scientific literature. The review showed that only 13 programs emerged from the search. Considering the recent development and the spread of ICTs within children and young people this number is still very low. Besides some general considerations can be derived from this review. First, half of the interventions (FearNot!, SMART Talk, MiiSchool, Quest Golden Rule, NoTrap!, KiVa) are designed and aimed to prevent bullying and two of them, NoTrap! and KiVa, have been created with the specific goal to intervene at the same time on bullying and 20

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT cyberbullying. On the contrary, the others (The Labyrinth, Friendly Attac, Virtual Reality (SL), Online Pestkoppenstoppen, Emphatic Virtual Buddy, WebQuest and MISAAC) are just focused on

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cyberbullying. This difference on behavioral target can be explained considering the years when the

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program has been developed: SMART Talk was created in the 90’s, FearNot! at the beginning of the

others focused on cyberbullying are much more recent.

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2000s, KiVa in 2006, Quest for the Golden Rule around 2007, NoTrap! in 2008 (first pilot). All the

Second, the review underscores the presence of more “standardized program” vs “one spot

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intervention. FearNot!, SMART Talk, MiiSchool, Quest for the Golden Rule, NoTrap!, KiVa are

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standardized programs because they have been piloted and then tested with different samples. Online Pestkoppenstoppen and Friendly Attac are very recent and the last is still in its first stage of development. All the others can be considered as one spot intervention because they represent a

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unique intervention conducted once or they represent interventions which need further development or applications. WebQuest is a single intervention which suggests an easy curriculum method to

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work on bullying and cyberbullying knowledge via ICT means. The Labyrint and the Virtual Environment (SL) created two different digital tools (a serious game in the first case and a virtual

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environment scenario in the second) that can be used by other players in the future. Finally, Emphatic Virtual Buddy and MISAAC presented two first experiments conducted with two different methods to prevent and to intervene against cyberbullying: the first proposes an online counselling and the second proposes a technical solution for Instant Messaging Users. Third, only few multifaceted programs (interventions with both components: face-to-face and ICTs-mediated) emerged from the review: Quest for the Golden Rule, NoTrap!, KiVa and Friendly Attac. All the others

are single-ICT component interventions.

Besides, within

multifaceted interventions we can distinguish between programs where the ICT-component can be used also by other possible targets not directly involved in the program (i.e. NoTrap!) and programs where the ICT-component is developed to be used with the specific program or group involved in

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT the project. This is the case of KiVa where the ICT video-games are considered a reinforcement of the face-to-face activities.

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Fourth, starting from the Positive Technology approach proposed by Riva and colleagues

-

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are aimed to modify the following features of the experience:

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(2012) in order to prevent and to intervene against bullying and victimization, the 13 interventions

Affective states: all the programs using serious game (Fearnot!, SMART-Talk,

MiiShool, Quest Golden Rule, KiVa, The Labyrinth, and Friendly Attac), virtual reality (SL) and

Engagement and self-actualizing experiences: all the programs using serious game

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-

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online counselling (Online Pestkoppenstoppen and Emphatic Virtual Buddy)

(Fearnot!, SMART-Talk, MiiShool, Quest Golden Rule, KiVa, The Labyrinth, and Friendly Attac), virtual reality (SL), social networks and online activities (NoTrap! and WebQuest)

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Social connectedness between individuals: all the programs using serious game

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(Fearnot!, SMART-Talk, MiiShool, Quest Golden Rule, KiVa, The Labyrinth, and Friendly Attac),

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virtual reality (SL), and social networks (NoTrap!) As we can see from this categorization, some programs are capable of modifying all the

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three features of experience, in particular programs making use of serious game (Fearnot!, SMARTTalk, MiiSchool, Quest for the Golden Rule, KiVa, The Labyrinth, and Friendly Attac) and of virtual reality (SL). Besides, the online counselling (Online Pestkoppenstoppen and Emphatic Virtual Buddy) is mainly used to promote the hedonic wellbeing (i.e. foster positive emotional states). NoTrap! program is more focused on promoting the eudaimonic and the social wellbeing. Finally, WebQuest is aimed to engage students more actively in what they currently do promoting eudaimonic wellbeing. Fifth, in terms of specific ICTs used throughout the interventions, the review highlighted whether the most recent programs make use of different ICTs such as online platforms with different online activities (web-site, forum, facebook group, online counselling), Virtual

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Environment Scenarios, technical solutions. On the other side the early interventions mainly used serious games as ICT activity.

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Finally, in relation to the evaluation of effectiveness, only four programs showed some

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evidence of effectiveness in reducing bullying and cyberbullying: FearNot!, SMART Talk, NoTrap!

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and KiVa. Quest for the Golden Rule, WebQuest and The Labyrinth only included the experimental group in the evaluation and not the control condition: thus, their findings cannot be considered valid in demonstrating that the improvement is caused by the intervention. Empathic Virtual Buddy did

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not consider a longitudinal design. All the other interventions (MiiSchool,Virtual Environment (SL)

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and MISAAC) only presented some descriptive information about the degree of satisfaction. Some suggestions for future studies about the evaluation of effectiveness can emerge from this review. Evidence of effectiveness for single-ICT component interventions (FearNot! and

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SMART Talk) suggest that ICTs may provide a powerful tool for bullying prevention. On the contrary, given that NoTrap! and KiVa are multifaceted programs with also a face-to-face

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component and the effectiveness of these programs has been showed only for the whole program, we cannot really know the added value of the ICT-component in a multifaceted antibullying

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program. Studies comparing single components (face-to-face vs online) and the added value of the ICT-component in a multifaceted program are needed and they could suggest relevant practical information on how to improve these programs. Knowing the differential impact of the different components on the problem solution can guide the choice within the schools and tailor the intervention for the specific context. For example, some authors suggested that the observed benefits of using serious game in education may only arise in certain situations. It could therefore be argued that games should not be seen as standalone sessions but perhaps something that can be used as adjuncts (Hays, 2005; Shaffer, 2006). Another possible line of investigation can address the effectiveness of the specific ICT used. For example we might ask whether serious games should be more effective than other digital tools in preventing bullying such as virtual reality scenarios (i.e. SL). Another example is related to the online counselling for the victim offered through an 23

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT empathic virtual buddy: is that solution more effective as compared to the support given through a

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private chat ?

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Conclusion

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Digital technologies are a feature of our society and their use is particularly salient during childhood and adolescence. This age group is more likely to use the internet, own gaming devices, go online wirelessly (via laptops and phones), use social networking sites and download and use

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apps on their phones (Zickhur, 2011). Overall, considering the enormous development of digital

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tools and the importance of this experience for young students, the review underlines that ICT tools are generally under-used in prevention and intervention against bullying and cyberbullying. Only in more recent years some advances in that direction can be seen with more differentiated

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solutions making use of different ICTs. The need for scientific studies on the effectiveness and the effect size of these virtual interventions is evident from this review and necessary in order to assist

and why.

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practitioners, policy makers, and administrators in deciding which interventions can work or not

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Starting from this review, we think that an anti-bullying ICT-mediated intervention should include: 1) interventions for the already known victims and bullies: this action can be delivered through the online counselling such as the one proposed in the Online Pestkoppenstoppen and Emphatic Virtual Buddy, aimed to support the victim, to promote an empowerment process in the victims and to make the bully aware of his/her own responsibility. In that direction other interesting suggestions can be found in the KiVa program with the virtual “mailbox” where students can ask for help, or in the NoTrap! program where students can ask for help to the online peers and to a private chat; 2) preventive actions for all the children and adolescents: this action can be delivered through serious games, virtual reality scenarios, online activities. These actions are aimed to raise awareness and knowledge on bullying/cyberbullying, to increase the empathic engagement between the user and the victim or between the user and the bystanders, to improve the victims and the bystanders 24

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT coping strategies and problem solving skills, to enhance social cohesion and to improve the quality of social relationships. For these actions, we have seen that each technology might have a different

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focus or different aims because of their specific characteristics. Besides, we also know that the

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different technologies have a different cost (i.e. developing a serious game is often a very expensive

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investment and it takes a long time). Thus, it becomes relevant to choose the specific ICT-mediated intervention considering the aims, the target, and the best cost-effectiveness ratio for each ICT

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component.

Limitations

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The current review is a first attempt to assess the state of art of ICT –mediated interventions in the bullying and cyberbullying area. Despite the necessity to summarize what has been done in a

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new and emerging area of intervention, we acknowledge several limitations of the study related to: 1) the choice to limit the search to the scientific databases; 2) the very few studies that were

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included given the paucity of scientific literature and the specific nature of the aim; 3) the limited number of studies constrained our efforts to rely on a more descriptive study. Future reviews might

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profit of a new and developing area of investigation and consider other characteristics of the programs such as data on the effect size related to each intervention effectiveness.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Table 1. Full text papers evaluated

17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24. 25. 26.

27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32

Excluded

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Program/intervention FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT FEARNOT SMART TALK SMART TALK SMART TALK SMART TALK MII-SCHOOL MII-SCHOOL QUEST FOR THE GOLDEN RULE NOTRAP! KIVA ONLINE PESTKOPPENSTOPPEN FRIENLDY ATTAC PEACE PACK PEACE PACK CONRED WEBQUEST

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16.

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

References Enz, Zoll, Vannini, Schneider, Hall, Paiva, & Aylett (2007) Hall, Woods,Dautenhahn, Sobral, Paiva, Wolke, & Newall (2004) Hall, Jones, Paiva, & Aylett (2009) Hall & Woods (2009) Hall, Jones, Paiva, & Aylett (2009) Hall, Vala, Hall, Webster, Woods, & Aylett (2006) Hall, Woods, & Aylett (2006) Paiva, Dias, Sobral, Aylett, Sobreperez, Woods, … Hall, (2004) Aylett, Louchart, Dias, Paiva, Vala, Woods & Hall (2006) Aylett, Louchart, Dias, Paiva, & Vala ( 2005) Sapouna, Wolke, Vannini, Watson, Woods..... (2010) Vala, Dias, & Paiva (2006) Vannini, Enz, Sapouna, Wolke, Watson, Woods, …(2010). Watson, .Vannini, Woods, Sapouna, Enz, Schneider… (2010) Woods, Hall, Dautenhahn, & Wolke (2007) Vala, M., Dias, J., & Paiva, A. (2006). Bosworth, Espelage, DuBay, Dahlberg, & Daytner (1996) Bosworth (2002) Bosworth, Espelage, & DuBay (1998) Bosworth, Espelage, Dubay, Daytner, & Karageorge (2000) Carmona, Espínola, Cangas, & Iribarne (2010) Carmona, Espínola, Cangas, & Iribarne (2011) Rubin-Vaughan, Pepler, Brown, & Craig (2011) Palladino, Nocentini, & Menesini (2012) Yang, Salmivalli (2015) Jacobs, Völlink, Dehue, & Lechner (2014) Van Broeckhoven & De Troyer (2013) Slee & Mohyla (2014) Mohyla & Slee (2012) Del Rey, Casas, & Ortega (2012) Brewer (2011)

Excluded Excluded Excluded

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT THE LABYRINT EMPHATIC VIRTUAL BUDDY VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT MISAAC

36. 37. 38.

Oravec (2012) Liang (2010) Dinakar, Jones, Havasi, Lieberman, & Picard (2012)

39.

Bostic & Brunt (2011) Ahlfors (2010) Van Den Broeck,Poels, Vandebosch, & Van Royen (2014).

------------------------------------------------------------------------USER INTERACTION PARADIGMS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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40. 41.

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35.

Choleva, Simeon, Filis, Metefas, & Patrikakis (2013) Van Der Zwaan, Geraerts, Dignum, & Jonker (2012) Wright, Burnham, Inman, & Ogorchock (2009) Pérez, Valdez, De Guadalupe Cota Ortiz, Barrera, & Pérez (2012)

MA N

32. 33. 34.

Excluded Excluded Excluded Excluded Excluded Excluded

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Table 2. Program characteristics OUTCOME

TARGET

TYPE OF ICT TOOL

MULTIFACETED INTERVENTION VS SINGLE-ICT COMPONENT

EVIDENCE OF EFFECTIVENESS

FearNot!

Bullying

School age

Serious game

No

Yes

SMART Talk

Violence, bullying

Adolescence

Serious game

No

Yes

Mii-School

Bullying, substance use, psychological problems, family problems Bullying

Adolescence

Serious game

No

No

School age

Serious game

Yes

No

Bullying Cyberbullying Bullying Cyberbullying Cybervictims

Adolescence

Online activities (web-site, foum, face book group) Serious game

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Online platform (counseling)

No

No

Adolescence

Serious game

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

KiVa Online Pestkoppenstoppen Friedly Attac

Cyberbullying

US

MA N

TE D

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NoTrap!

School age Adolescence Adolescence

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Quest Golden Rule

CR

IP

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PROGRAM

WebQuest

Cyberbullying

Adolescence

The Labyrint

Safer internet

School age

inquiry-based lesson situated on the Internet Serious game

Emphatic Virtual Buddy Virtual Enviroment

Cybervitims

Adolescence

Online counseling

No

No

Cyberbullying

Adolescence

No

No

MISAAC

Cyberbullying

Instant Messanging

Second life (virtual environment) Technical tool

No

No

34

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

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users

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

T

Fig. 1. Flow chart of the study selection process.

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Initial search results Total: 840

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461 duplicates deleted

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Screened by abstract Total: 379

Full text papers evaluated Total: 41

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338 Abstracts excluded: - 78% basic research (no intervention) - 20% no virtual or ICT component - 2% not bullying - 2% not in English

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9 papers excluded: - 2 basic research (no intervention) - 3 no virtual or ICT component - 4 general approach to the intervention

Studies finally retained Total: 32

36