Anti-cyberbullying interventions at school: comparing the effectiveness of gratitude and psychoeducational programmes

ABSTRACT

Previous studies evidence the benefits of gratitude and psychoeducation to diminish the performing of aggressive behaviours. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a brief gratitude programme and a brief psychoeducational programme to prevent cyberaggression in adolescents. A sample of 483 adolescents (11–17 years old) participated in the study, being assigned to one of the following three groups: gratitude programme, psychoeducational programme and the control. Both programmes comprised four one-hour sessions. All participants completed the cyberaggression subscale of the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (ECIP-Q) at three time points: pre-test, post-test and three-month follow-up. Significant decreases in cyberaggression were found at post-test in the psychoeducational group and at the three-month follow-up in the gratitude group. These findings provide the first evidence of the benefits of gratitude training in adolescents to prevent cyberaggression over time.

KEYWORDS:

• Gratitude intervention
• psychoeducation
• cyberaggression
• prevention
• adolescents

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participating education centres, directors, school counsellors, teachers, and adolescents for their helpful collaboration in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, M.T.C.-N., upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Málaga and PAIDI Group CTS-1048 (UMA, Junta de Andalucía).