Online Bullying Bystander Intervention for Middle Schools Phase II (STACII)

Translating an In-Person Brief, Bystander Bullying Intervention (STAC) to a Technology-Based - Phase II

School interventions to reduce bullying can be effective but also require substantial time and resources. Online technologies have the potential to deliver effective bullying interventions to a large number of middle school students for less cost. The feasibility of delivering the effective STAC bullying intervention through a mobile web app will be tested using focus groups with middle school students and development and usability testing and the efficacy of the program will be tested using a randomized controlled trial.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Adolescent; Mental Health; Technology; Bullying
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: STAC-T

Detailed Description

While studies support the efficacy of comprehensive, school-wide interventions in reducing bullying, these types of programs can require significant time and financial resources for implementation, resulting in barriers to providing school-based bullying prevention, especially in low-income and rural communities. Additionally, although training bystanders to act as "defenders" on behalf of targets of bullying is an important intervention component, few programs include this as part of their comprehensive strategy. Brief programs that focus on bystander training and require fewer resources are needed to reduce bullying and its negative consequences. The PI (Dr. Midgett) developed STAC, a brief, stand-alone bullying bystander intervention for middle school students, to reduce bullying and mental health risks for bystanders. Brief, in-person programs, however, still pose implementation barrier such as training school personnel, providing external support, and not allowing for large groups of students to be trained at the same time. For this project, the investigators propose to develop a technology-based STAC intervention (STAC-T) that will allow students to customize their experience by selecting avatars and bullying scenarios based on our previous studies conducted in a range of middle schools, including those in low-income and rural communities. The investigators will also incorporate an assessment and personalized feedback component to promote behavior change. The innovative, user-centered design proposed will be inherently sensitive to cultural needs of students and identify personally-appropriate strategies. The specific aims of this application include building the program leveraging our prior work and expertise of an external advisory board, usability and effectiveness testing with middle school students and stakeholders to evaluate feasibility, and testing the efficacy of the program with a randomized controlled trial. The technology-based platform will increase the overall reach, impact, and sustainability of the STAC intervention for bullying prevention. It will substantially reduce cost to increase reach and its interactivity and algorithms can tailor program content to adapt it further for students attending low-income and rural schools. Thus, this low-cost, easy to disseminate technology-based bullying bystander intervention has the potential to have a substantial impact on the problem of bullying and the negative associated consequences for both students who are targets and bystanders in middle school when the problem of bullying peaks. There is a large market for the STAC-T intervention with approximately 100,000 public and private schools with middle-school grades in the United States. Globally, the online education market is growing at 10% a year and the digital health market exceeds $220 billion annually.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 613
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Idaho
    • Boise, Idaho, United States, 83725-1135
      • Boise State University
  • Mississippi
    • University, Mississippi, United States, 38677-1848
      • University of Mississippi

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 11 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria for Students:

• being enrolled in grades 6, 7, or 8 in a middle/junior high school in Idaho, Oregon, Mississippi, or New Hampshire.
• being selected by school counselors and teachers for having a desire to make a positive difference at school, be mature, and have the ability to positively engage with peers and adults (Aims 1 and 2).
• speaks and reads English or Spanish.
• parent consents and student assents for participation.

Exclusion Criteria for Students:

• participated in a previous study on STAC.
• speaks and reads only a language other than English or Spanish.
• does not consent and/or assent for participation.

Inclusion Criteria for School Personnel:

• employed in a middle/junior high school in Idaho or Mississippi with grades 6, 7, or 8.
• employed as a principal, teacher, or school counselor.
• speaks and reads English or Spanish.
• consents to participate.

Exclusion Criteria for School Personnel:

• participated in a previous study on STAC.
• speaks and reads only a language other than English or Spanish.
• does not consent for participation.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: STAC-T; STAC-T is a brief technology-based bullying bystander intervention using four strategies: "Stealing the show," "Turning it over," "Accompanying others," and "Coaching compassion." The online curriculum is delivered to middle-school students.	Behavioral: STAC-T; Middle school participants will complete online modules to learn about anti-bullying techniques and bystander intervention.
No Intervention: Assessment Only Control

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Student-Advocates Pre- and Post-Scale (SAPPS)	An 11 item questionnaire measuring students' knowledge of buying, knowledge of the STAC-T strategies, and students' confidence to intervene in bullying situations. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert Scale ranging from 1 (Totally Disagree) to 4 (Totally Agree) and were summed to compute a total scale score. The minimum value is 11 and the maximum value is 44, and a higher score means a better outcome.	Baseline assessment, 30-day assessment
Bullying and Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents (BCS-A) - Victimization Scale at 30 Days	This questionnaire measures bullying and cyberbullying victimization in the past 30 days. The 13-item Victimization Scale assesses in-person bullying victimization with 8 items and cyberbullying victimization with 5 items. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert Scale ranging from 0 (Never) to 4 (Four or More Times) and were summed to compute a total scale score. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum value is 52, and a higher score means a worse outcome.	Baseline assessment, 30-day assessment
Use of Strategies at 30 Days Post-intervention	Questions rating the student's use of each STAC-T strategy using a single item rated on a 5-point Likert scale: "How often would you say you have used these strategies to stop bullying in the past month?" (a) Stealing the Show; (b) Turning it Over; (c) Accompanying Others; and (d) Coaching Compassion. Total strategies reflects the number of students who used at least one of the four STAC-T strategies. Results are reported for students who reported witnessing bullying in the past 30-days (n=125/229).	30-day assessment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children	The 20-item CES-DC measures depressive symptoms in children on a four-point Likert Scale. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum value is 60, and a higher score means a worse outcome.	Baseline assessment, 6-week assessment
The Social Avoidance and Distress Scale - General and Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale in the condition Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A)	The 18-item Social Avoidance and Distress Scale - General and Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale will measure anxiety. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum value is 72, and a higher score means a worse outcome.	Baseline assessment, 6-week assessment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Klein Buendel, Inc.
• Collaborators: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); University of Mississippi Medical Center; Boise State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mary Buller, MA, Klein Buendel, Inc.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 26, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 18, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): November 18, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 20, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 6, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): October 7, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 24, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 19, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Aggression; Behavior; Personal Satisfaction; Social Behavior; Harassment, Non-Sexual; Bullying; Psychological Well-Being
• Other Study ID Numbers: 0337; 5R42MD014943 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No