School Program for Resilience and Bullying Prevention

School-Based Intervention to Enhance Psychological Resilience and Bullying Awareness Among High School Students: A Mixed-Methods Study

This study evaluated whether a school-based psychoeducational program could improve psychological resilience and reduce bullying victimization among high school students in Hatay, Türkiye, following the 2023 earthquake. The intervention consisted of a 10-week psychological resilience program followed by a 5-week peer bullying awareness program delivered in weekly group sessions. A single-group pretest-posttest mixed-methods design was used. Psychological resilience and bullying victimization were assessed before the intervention and three months after program completion using validated self-report scales. Qualitative data were also collected to explore students' experiences and perceived benefits of the program.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Psychological Resilience; Peer Bullying; Bullying Victimization
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Psychological Resilience Program; Behavioral: Peer Bullying Awareness Program

Detailed Description

Adolescents living in disaster-affected regions may experience increased psychological distress, reduced resilience, and greater vulnerability to peer bullying. School-based psychoeducational interventions may strengthen coping skills, improve emotional regulation, and promote healthier peer relationships.

This study was conducted in Hatay, Türkiye, following the February 2023 earthquakes to examine changes in psychological resilience and bullying victimization after participation in a structured psychoeducational intervention.

The study used a single-group pretest-posttest mixed-methods design. High school students participated in a 15-week intervention consisting of two sequential components. The first component was a 10-week psychological resilience program designed to improve self-awareness, emotional regulation, coping skills, self-efficacy, goal setting, and social support. The second component was a 5-week peer bullying awareness program developed by the Ministry of National Education with educational support from UNICEF, focusing on recognizing bullying, empathy, bystander intervention, and prevention strategies.

Quantitative outcomes were measured using the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12 (CYRM-12) and the Child-Adolescent Bullying Scale-9 Short Form (CABS-9). Assessments were performed before the intervention and three months after completion of the program. Qualitative data were collected using open-ended written questions to explore participants' perceptions of the intervention and its effects.

The primary objective was to evaluate changes in psychological resilience and bullying victimization following participation in the program. Secondary objectives included exploring students' experiences of the intervention and identifying perceived changes in personal development, peer relationships, and school climate.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 101
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey (Türkiye)
  • Hatay, Turkey (Türkiye)
    • Antakya High School

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

**Inclusion Criteria:**

• Students enrolled in grades 9, 10, or 11 at the participating high school in Hatay, Türkiye.
• Aged between 14 and 18 years.
• Able to understand and complete the study questionnaires.
• Willing to participate in the school-based intervention.
• Written informed consent obtained from parents or legal guardians, and assent obtained from the student where applicable.

**Exclusion Criteria:**

• Students who did not provide informed consent or whose parents/legal guardians did not provide consent.
• Students who were absent from the majority of intervention sessions.
• Students who did not complete both the baseline and follow-up assessments.
• Students who withdrew from the study at any time during the intervention period.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Intervention Group; Participants in this single-arm study received a sequential 15-week school-based behavioral intervention. The intervention consisted of a 10-week Psychological Resilience Program followed immediately by a 5-week Peer Bullying Awareness Program. Weekly group sessions focused on developing emotional regulation, coping skills, resilience, communication, social support, empathy, bullying awareness, bystander intervention, conflict resolution, and bullying prevention. All participants received both intervention components in the same order, and outcomes were assessed before the intervention and three months after program completion.

Behavioral: Psychological Resilience Program; The Psychological Resilience Program was a structured, school-based psychoeducational intervention delivered in weekly group sessions over 10 consecutive weeks. The program was designed to strengthen adolescents' psychological resilience following the 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye. The curriculum included activities aimed at improving self-awareness, emotional awareness and regulation, stress management, problem-solving, coping strategies, communication skills, self-efficacy, goal setting, optimism, social support, and adaptive responses to challenging life events. Sessions were conducted using interactive methods, including group discussions, experiential activities, role-playing, reflection exercises, and practical skill-building tasks. The intervention was delivered by trained professionals according to a standardized program protocol.; Behavioral: Peer Bullying Awareness Program; The Peer Bullying Awareness Program was delivered immediately after completion of the resilience program and consisted of five weekly school-based group sessions. The program was developed by the Turkish Ministry of National Education with educational support from UNICEF and was designed to increase awareness of peer bullying and promote healthy peer relationships. Session topics included the definition and types of bullying, recognition of bullying behaviors, empathy development, emotional awareness, effective communication, bystander responsibilities, conflict resolution, reporting mechanisms, and strategies for preventing bullying in school settings. Interactive discussions, scenario-based learning, group activities, and reflective exercises were used to encourage active participation and application of the concepts in everyday school life.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Psychological Resilience	Psychological resilience will be assessed using the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12 (CYRM-12), a validated self-report instrument that evaluates individual, relational, and contextual resilience resources among adolescents. The total CYRM-12 score will be used to determine changes in participants' resilience following the intervention. Higher scores indicate greater psychological resilience and adaptive coping capacity.	Baseline and 3 months after completion of the intervention.
Peer Bullying victimization	Peer bullying victimization will be assessed using the Child-Adolescent Bullying Scale-9 Short Form (CABS-9), a validated self-report instrument that measures the frequency and severity of bullying experiences among adolescents. Total CABS-9 scores will be compared before and after the intervention to evaluate changes in peer bullying victimization. Lower scores indicate reduced exposure to peer bullying and improved school social experiences.	Baseline and 3 months after completion of the intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Participants' Experiences of the Intervention	Participants' experiences and perceptions of the intervention will be explored using open-ended qualitative questions administered three months after completion of the program. Responses will be analyzed using thematic content analysis to identify perceived changes in psychological resilience, coping strategies, emotional well-being, peer relationships, bullying awareness, and the overall usefulness of the intervention.	3 months after completion of the intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Saglik Bilimleri Universitesi Gulhane Tip Fakultesi
• Collaborators: Mustafa Kemal University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 10, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 15, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): March 20, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 29, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 29, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 6, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 6, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 29, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: School-based intervention; Psychoeducation; Psychological resilience; Peer bullying; Bullying awareness
• Other Study ID Numbers: 902-01-FR 006; MEB.TT.2025.029302.01 (Other Identifier: Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education (MoNE) veya Turkish Ministry of National Education)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified individual participant data underlying the results reported in this study will be made available to qualified researchers upon reasonable request to the corresponding author. Data will be shared after publication of the study, subject to approval of a methodologically sound research proposal and in accordance with institutional ethics requirements and applicable data protection regulations. The corresponding author will provide the data upon request.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: De-identified individual participant data and supporting documents will be available beginning 6 months after publication of the study and will remain available for 5 years.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: De-identified individual participant data, the study protocol, statistical analysis plan, and analytic code will be made available to qualified researchers upon reasonable request to the corresponding author. Requests must include a methodologically sound research proposal and may require approval by the study investigators and the relevant institutional ethics committee. Data will be shared in accordance with institutional policies, participant confidentiality requirements, and applicable data protection regulations.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ANALYTIC_CODE

Study Data/Documents

1. Study Protocol
   Information identifier: Study Protocol v1.0
   Information comments: The study protocol is available in the shared repository.
2. Individual Participant Data Set
   Information identifier: Deidentified IPD v1.0
   Information comments: De-identified individual participant data underlying the findings of this study are available through the shared repository. The dataset contains anonymized participant-level data with all direct identifiers removed and is provided for research purposes in accordance with institutional ethics requirements.

Drug and device information, study documents

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