SBIR-STTR Award

Bullying, in its most familiar form, is a serious public health concern. This is especially true among middle-school age children. However, the recent increase in social networking websites coupled with the increased availability of more advanced personal devices with a broader range of social applications has dramatically increased the possible types of bullying perpetrated by and against children and adolescents. Cyberbullying is perpetrated by one or more individuals who abuse one of the many computer or Internet-mediated communication formats (e.g., cell phones, email, the Internet, Facebook, texting) to bully, intimidate, or harass a young victim. Like in-person bullying, cyberbullying has been shown to negatively impact the physical and socioemotional development of youth. Both victims and offenders of bullying and cyberbullying are more likely to have low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, depression, substance use, and other associated problems. [However, there are very limited evidence-based interventions that comprehensively address both conventional bullying and cyberbullying, especially for the most frequent victims: middle-school age children.] The proposed Phase I SBIR application requests six months of funding to develop bullying and cyberbullying prevention modules, including classroom materials and serious gaming component for cyberbullying, to supplement the evidence-based Life Skills Training Middle School drug and violence prevention program. Serious gaming technology refers to a wide range of electronic games used for purposes other than pure entertainment (e.g., education, simulation, investigation). The development of such an innovative and needed intervention would fill a gap in how schools and practitioners are currently able to influence the behavior of offenders of all types of bullying as well as the help-seeking behavior of victims. The proposed bullying and cyberbullying materials will be incorporated into the evidence-based Life Skills Training (LST) prevention model for middle-school age youth. The LST model teaches youth personal self-management skills, social skills, drug refusal skills, and other life skills needed t successfully navigate developmental tasks, increase resilience, and facilitate healthy psychosocial development. The proposed intervention module will utilize state of the art gaming technology delivered within classroom settings, focusing on the antecedents, responses, and consequences of bullying and cyberbullying. In Phase I, we will develop selected serious gaming prototype materials including a participant guide, a provider manual, and the game itself. We will pilot test the prototype materials for feasibility, usability, and overall appeal i a series of focus groups and key informant interviews with middle school students and teachers. During Phase II, prototype materials will be developed in full into a commercial quality product and tested in a rigorous randomized controlled trial. The ultimate goal of this research is to promote an evidence-based prevention program for middle-school students that contains an innovative serious gaming module to prevent bullying and cyberbullying perpetration and victimization.

Public Health Relevance:
This project involves the development, implementation, and testing of a bullying and cyberbullying prevention program to function in tandem with the evidence-based Life Skills Training Middle School program. The proposed work will include the development and testing of prototypes of 1) a bullying/cyberbullying serious game for middle school-age youth (accessed via the web); and 2) print material (teacher manual and student guide) that corresponds with the serious game to be used in class by teachers and students. The primary purpose of the proposed approach is to teach students, who are potential perpetrators, victims, and bystanders of bullying and cyber-bullying, to choose healthy, positive and pro-social ways of interacting with peers both on- and off-line. The secondary purpose is to inform teachers and parents how to support their students'/children's healthy, pro-social use of modern social media such as the Internet.

Project Terms:
Address; Adolescent; Age; Alcohol or Other Drugs use; base; behavior influence; bullying; bullying prevention; Cellular Phone; Child; Communication; Computers; Coupled; cyberbullying; Development; Devices; Educational aspects; Educational process of instructing; Electronic Mail; Electronics; Ensure; Evaluation; evidence base; Evidence based intervention; Feeling suicidal; Focus Groups; Funding; Gender; Goals; help-seeking behavior; Individual; informant; innovation; Internet; Intervention; Interview; Investigation; Life; Manuals; Mediating; Mental Depression; middle school; Modeling; offender; Parents; Participant; peer; perpetrators; Persons; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Phase; Prevention; Prevention program; Printing; programs; prototype; Provider; psychosocial development; public health medicine (field); public health relevance; Randomized Controlled Trials; Request for Applications; Research; resilience; response; School-Age Population; Schools; self esteem; Self Management; Series; simulation; skills; skills training; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; social; social networking website; social skills; Students; teacher; Technology; Testing; usability; Victimization; violence prevention; Work; Youth

An Evidence-based Serious Game Approach for Bullying Prevention Bullying, in its most familiar form, is a serious public health concern. This is especially true during the middle-school years, a transition period when bullying increases. Cyberbullying, an electronic evolution of face- to-face bullying, is willful and repeated harm inflicted through computers, cell phones and other electronic devices to threaten, harass, embarrass, or socially exclude another. Both victims and offenders of bullying and cyberbullying are more likely to have low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, depression, substance use, and lower academic achievement. The proposed Phase II SBIR application requests 36 months of funding to develop and test bullying and cyberbullying prevention materials, including interactive classroom sessions and corresponding serious games, based on the evidence-based substance abuse prevention approach called Life Skills Training (LST). The LST prevention model teaches youth personal self-management skills, social skills, drug refusal skills, and other life skills needed to successfully navigate developmental tasks, increase resilience, and facilitate healthy psychosocial development. The LST program has been extensively tested and found to effectively prevent substance use in a series of randomized controlled trials with behavioral effects reported in over 30 peer- reviewed publications. However, LST does not currently address any forms of bullying or cyberbullying. The proposed prevention materials for middle school bullying and cyberbullying will (1) utilize both interactive classroom sessions and serious/educational games (digital games used to educate in an entertaining format); (2) positively change social norms surrounding bullying and cyberbullying; (3) challenge positive expectancies about bullying and cyberbullying; (4) enhance protective factors by building social, self-regulation, and relationship skills through interactive learning and behavioral rehearsal; and (5) include booster sessions. In Phase I, we developed classroom and serious game prototype materials and pilot tested them for feasibility, usability, and overall appeal in a series of focus groups and key informant interviews with middle school students and teachers. We achieved all Phase I milestones. During Phase II, we propose to develop the full intervention and test it in a rigorous national randomized controlled trial with 30 middle/junior high schools. The goal of this research is to effectively address bullying and cyberbullying perpetration and victimization by adapting the evidence-based LST prevention model to include new classroom sessions and a corresponding serious game for each grade in middle school. The proposed product has the potential to fill a gap in the preventive intervention tools currently available to schools, which can be widely disseminated throughout the country using existing marketing and dissemination channels. If effective, the proposed prevention products can efficiently decrease multiple problem behaviors among youth, including bullying, cyberbullying as well as substance abuse, and reduce the adverse health and mental health consequences of these behaviors.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
NARRATIVE An Evidence-based Serious Game Approach for Bullying Prevention This Phase II SBIR proposal is designed to address the critical public health problem of bullying and cyberbullying among middle school age youth. The proposed Phase II SBIR application requests 36 months of funding to develop and test bullying and cyberbullying prevention materials, including interactive classroom sessions and corresponding serious games, based on the evidence-based substance abuse prevention approach called Life Skills Training. The proposed product has the potential to fill a gap in the intervention tools currently available to schools that can be widely disseminated throughout the country using existing marketing and dissemination channels and decrease the adverse consequences of bullying, cyberbullying as well as substance abuse.

Project Terms:
Academic achievement; Address; adverse outcome; Alcohol or Other Drugs use; Attitude; base; Behavior; Behavioral; bullying; bullying prevention; Cellular Phone; commercialization; Communities; Community of Practice; Community Practice; Computers; Country; cyberbullying; design; Development; digital; dosage; E-learning; Electronics; Evaluation; Event; evidence base; Evolution; Expectancy; Feeling suicidal; Focus Groups; follow up assessment; Funding; Future Teacher; Goals; hands-on learning; Health; Informal Social Control; informant; Intervention; Interview; junior high school; Knowledge; Learning Module; Life; Marketing; Mental Depression; Mental Health; Middle School Student; Modeling; offender; Outcome; Parents; Peer Review; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Phase; Prevention; Prevention approach; Prevention program; Preventive Intervention; Primary Prevention; Problem behavior; Process; prototype; psychosocial development; Public Health; Publications; Randomized; Randomized Controlled Trials; rehearsal; Reporting; Request for Applications; Research; resilience; School-Age Population; Schools; self esteem; Self Management; Series; skills; skills training; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; social; Social Change; social norm; social skills; substance abuse prevention; Substance abuse problem; substance use prevention; teacher; Teacher Professional Development; Testing; tool; Training Programs; usability; Victimization; Youth