Cyberbullying in Middle School Students: An Intervention Using an Educational Mobile Application for Caregivers: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Cyberbullying among middle school students is a growing problem that is shown to affect psychological development in middle school youth which can result in self-harm and suicide. Evidence suggests more frequent communication between children and their caregivers is a protective factor against cyberbullying. The KnowBullying app is designed to increase caregiver and student communication to prevent bullying. This study examines the effectiveness of the KnowBullying app regarding enhanced caregiver and child communication and cyberbullying experience reduction in middle school students. Five students and nine caregivers were given surveys before and after the caregivers downloaded and used the KnowBullying app. The student survey measured cyberbullying experiences while the caregiver survey measured parental interaction through communication. The results show a statistically significant increase in caregiver and child communication scores from 13.7778 to 17.1111 (p-value .017) and an increase in KnowBullying app usage scores from 0 to 1.4444 (p-value .016). Due to only one of the five children having experience with cyberbullying, no statistical comparison could accurately be conducted on the student results. The findings suggest the KnowBullying app may help increase caregiver and child communication. Nursing implications include considering an increase in regular cyberbullying screening in middle-school aged students, offering recommendations for the app utilization by caregivers, and increasing community and school outreach cyberbullying programs to provide caregivers and students with tools to prevent and address cyberbullying.

Keywords

• cyberbullying prevention
• knowbullying
• communication