A Randomized Control Trial Investigating the Efficacy of a Brief Bullying Intervention App (STAC-T): Increasing Knowledge and Confidence to Intervene and Decreasing Bullying Victimization (Preprint)

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Abstract
BACKGROUND Bullying is a significant problem in the United States (U.S.) with 1 in 4 students reporting being a target of bullying. The majority of students indicate they witness bullying as bystanders but do not know what to do to intervene. School-wide, comprehensive programs are generally effective in reducing bullying, but they often lack a focus on bystander training. Additionally, comprehensive, school-wide programs are expensive and place a high demand on schools for implementation. STAC-T is a new technology-based bullying intervention app that is designed to be both brief and focused on training student bystanders to intervene. Researchers have demonstrated the usability, acceptability, feasibility, and relevance of the STAC-T app. Previous studies have also shown that among students trained in STAC-T, those who witnessed bullying post-training indicated using at least of one STAC intervention strategy to defend peers. OBJECTIVE The aim of the current study is to build upon the initial findings supporting the use of the STAC-T app by investigating the efficacy of the program. Objectives included examining if relative to students in the control condition, students trained in STAC-T would report: (a) greater increases in knowledge of bullying and confidence to intervene in bullying situations and (b) decreases in bullying victimization. METHODS A sample of 613 participants recruited from six middle schools in the Northeast, South, and Northwest regions of the U.S. were randomly assigned by classroom periods to either the STAC-T intervention condition or assessment-only control condition. We used linear mixed models to examine changes in outcome variables from baseline to the 30-day follow-up. RESULTS We found a significant interaction effect for Time x Group (p < .001) for knowledge and confidence to intervene, with students in the intervention group reporting a greater increase in knowledge and confidence to intervene compared to students in the control group. Similarly, results revealed a significant interaction effect for Time x Group (p < .01) for bullying victimization, with students in the intervention group reporting a significantly greater decrease in bullying victimization compared to students in the control group. CONCLUSIONS Results from this randomized control trial demonstrate the efficacy of STAC-T in increasing students’ knowledge and confidence to intervene and reducing bullying victimization. Our findings provide support for the STAC-T app as a promising and sustainable approach to bullying intervention for middle schools. CLINICALTRIAL Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05572398

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