Increasing Children's Defending Behaviors: Using Deviance Regulation

NCT04681209 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: AuburnUDRT
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,564
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has identified bullying as a significant public health concern. The research tests a novel approach to increase children's defending of victims of bullying. Previous research has shown that the presence of defenders leads to decreases in bullying. Thus, promoting defending has become a critical component of anti-bullying interventions. However, how to best motivate defending has been relatively unstudied. Deviance Regulation Theory (DRT) provides a theoretical basis for motivating positive health and social behaviors. This theory proposes that individuals are motivated to behave in ways that differentiate them from others in a positive manner. Accordingly, individuals will be motivated to engage in a behavior if they believe the behavior occurs infrequently and will be viewed positively by others. As children report that few of their peers defend victims of bullying, the goal of this study is to increase defending by communicating to children that defenders possess traits valued by their peers (e.g., being popular, kind). Children in 4th-grade and 5th-grade classrooms received a DRT-based anti-bullying intervention or an anti-bullying intervention focused on increasing empathy for victims and strategies for defending peers. Data collection occurred three times during the school year: a) at baseline, two weeks prior to the intervention; b) 3 months post-intervention; and c) 6 months post-intervention. Findings showed that compared to the traditional anti-bullying intervention, the DRT-based intervention resulted in larger, more sustained gains in teacher-reported defending, but not peer-reported or self-reported defending. Contrary to expectations, gains in teacher-reported defending were greatest for children who viewed defending to be normative amongst their classmates. Increases in defending were also greatest among those children least likely to defend (i.e., those low in popularity and prosocial behavior, and those often bullied by peer). These findings have implications for the development of anti-bullying interventions and more broadly for understanding how to encourage important behavioral changes in childhood and adolescence. However, more research is needed to understand why increases were limited to only defending behaviors observable to teachers.

Conditions

Bullying of Child

Keywords

Peer Relationship; Bullying Prevention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Changes in Peer-reported Defending across The School Year

  Peer ratings of how often each participating classmate defended bullied peers

  three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up

• Changes in Self-reported Defending across the School Year

  Children's ratings of how often they defended bullied peers

  three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up

• Changes in Teacher-reported Defending across the School Year

  Teachers' ratings of how often each participating student defended bullied peers

  three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Changes in Perceptions of Defenders across The School Year

  three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up

• Changes in Peer Aggression across the School Year

  three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up

• Changes in Peer Victimization across the School Year

  three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up

Study Arms (2)

DRT-Condition

EXPERIMENTAL

This is the experimental group that engaged in the DRT-based intervention activity.

Behavioral: DRT Condition

Empathy-Condition

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

This is the experimental group that engaged in the empathy-based intervention activity.

Behavioral: Empathy Condition

Interventions

DRT Condition BEHAVIORAL

Children were asked to provide five descriptors of two children who each engaged in defending behaviors. Two weeks later they were told the top seven descriptors given by the hundreds of children participating in the project. This was followed by a brief discussion of how one could best help another kid who was getting bullied. Children then made posters to share with younger grades as to what "friendship heroes" are like, using the descriptor words shared with them, and how to be a friendship hero (i.e., how to help someone who is being bullied). Posters were hung for two-to-four months after the intervention activity.

DRT-Condition

Empathy Condition BEHAVIORAL

Children in the empathy-based condition were asked to provide five descriptors of how two children who were bullied would fee. Two weeks later they were told the top seven descriptors given by the hundreds of children participating in the project. This was followed by a brief discussion of how one could best help another kid who was getting bullied. Children then made posters to share with younger grades as to what being bullied feels like, using the descriptor words shared with them, and how to be a friendship hero (i.e., how to help someone who is being bullied). Posters were hung for two-to-four months after the intervention activity.

Empathy-Condition

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Child in the fourth-grade or fifth-grade of participating schools

You may not qualify if:

• None.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Auburn University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Auburn University

Auburn, Alabama, 36879-5402, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Troop-Gordon W, Frosch CA, Wienke Totura CM, Bailey AN, Jackson JD, Dvorak RD. Predicting the development of pro-bullying bystander behavior: A short-term longitudinal analysis. J Sch Psychol. 2019 Dec;77:77-89. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2019.10.004. Epub 2019 Nov 25.

  PMID: 31837730 RESULT

Study Officials

• Wendy P Gordon

  Auburn University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Schools (including teachers and students) were not aware of whether they were receiving an experimental or traditional intervention activity. Those collecting the data were also not aware of the experimental condition of the participants.
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principle Investigator

Model Details: Schools were randomly assigned to have their fourth-grade and fifth-grade classrooms participate in either a DRT-based intervention activity or a traditional (i.e., empathy-based) intervention activity.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 14, 2020
• First Posted: December 23, 2020
• Study Start: September 1, 2017
• Primary Completion: May 30, 2019
• Study Completion: July 30, 2020
• Last Updated: December 23, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)