Een online advies op maat voor cyberpest slachtoffers.

Rationale:

The more one uses the Internet, the bigger the chance of becoming a victim of cyber bullying. In the Netherlands, about 20 % of the adolescents have experiences with cyber bullying. Victims can be bullied at all places and at all times, because the Internet and phones are accessible everywhere and all day long. The cyber bullies can also command a large audience, resulting in public or even worldwide embarrassment for the victim. A lot of victims cannot delete a humiliating message easily; they often do not know how to remove the message. There is convincing evidence that being cyber bullied can result in serious psychosomatic and psychosocial health problems. Several studies found that victims of cyber bullying feel more depressed, hurt, lonely, insecure, worried, hopeless, embarrassed, threatened, anxious, frustrated, angry, socially inept and experience stress, a low self esteem and more interpersonal problems compared to non-victims. Some victims are even suicidal and a small percentage of them actually commit suicide. Other research indicated that 90 % of the adolescents seek help online instead of offline.



Objective:

The evaluation of the effects of an online tailored advice for cyber bullying victims and bully/victims. With this intervention, irrational thoughts and maladaptive coping strategies will be positively changed. As a consequence of this intervention, there should be a significant decrease of 1) the amount of cyber bullying victims; 2) the psychosocial problems; 3) concentration problems at school; and 4) school truancy. The intervention will be developed with the Intervention Mapping approach.



Study design:

The effect of the online tailored advice is tested by an experimental design with three conditions (experimental group, general information group and waitlist control group), with measures at baseline, after advice one, two, three, a half year post start and 1 year post start with the intervention. Comparisons between the three groups will make it possible to measure the effects of the online intervention and the general information on Pestweb independently. The waitlist control group allows controlling for internal validation issues such as aging.



Study population:

Dutch adolescent ‘VMBO’ students (13-15 years) who were victims of at least three of the 17 deviant cyber behaviors more than once a month or more often during the last year, or adolescents who were victims of at least one deviant cyber behaviors twice or three times a month or more often during the last year.



Intervention:

One intervention is used. The experimental group receives the intervention. The intervention consists of three moments of advices, in which they learn respectively how to recognize, dispute and replace irrational thoughts, to change passive or aggressive coping into active problem solving coping strategies with additional extra lessons in social skills, bullying situation dynamics and they receive feedback about their performance on advice one and two with additional lessons. Additional lessons consist of using the Internet in a secure manner, how to-lessons and planning. All lessons and advices are tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of each participant. The general information group receives general information about how to stop cyber bullying via the website www.Pestweb.nl or www.pestkoppenstoppen.nl. The waitlist control group receives no further information; they will receive the online intervention after the experimental group completes the 3rd advice.



Study parameters/endpoints:

The main study parameters are:

A decrease in passive and/or aggressive victims of cyber bullying, a decrease in depressive and anxiety problems and suicidal thoughts and a decrease in cyberbullying.

The secondary study parameters are:

An increase in effective coping skills and rational helpful thoughts. Besides these parameters, coping behavior determinants such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, planning and constructive emotions should change.

We expect that irrational thoughts and maladaptive coping strategies will be positively changed. As a consequence of this intervention, there should be a significant decrease of:

1. The amount of cyber bullying victims;

2. The psychosocial problems;

3. Concentration problems at school;

4. School truancy.

Both primary and secondary outcomes will be measured at baseline, after one month, two months, three months, six months and a year after starting with the intervention.

Schools are randomly assigned to one of the three following conditions, namely the experimental condition, the waitlist control condition and the general information condition.

Participants fill in the online selection questionnaire. After giving informed consent, victims and/or bully/victims of cyber bullying are allowed to enter the intervention.



In the experimental condition, participants receive the tailored online intervention immediately, after one month, and after three months.



The waitlist control condition receives the intervention six months after the start of the experimental condition.



The general information condition receives no intervention. The participants in this condition receive only general information about cyber bullying from Pestweb/pestkoppenstoppen.nl.



The online tailored intervention consists of three moments of advice. In the first advice, participants will receive information, practice and guidance in the process of recognizing, disputing and changing irrational and unhelpful thoughts into rational and helpful thoughts. In the fist advice, a start with psycho-education in emotions is made. In the second advice, participants will receive information, practice and guidance in changing the ineffective coping strategies into effective coping strategies. In order to be able to cope effectively, methods such as tailoring, video modeling, guided practice and enactive mastery experiences will be used in social interaction skills, emotion regulation, confrontation skills and coping planning. In the third and final advice, participants receive feedback and additional lessons based on their progress. They will also learn how all skills are summarized in one skill, and receive tips regarding safe internet use and how-to lessons.

In all three advice moments, participants will receive computer tailored feedback messages, empathic reflections or short summaries of answers, plans, sentences they can use and/or explanations.