Clinical trial NCT04681209: Increasing Children's Defending Behaviors: Using Deviance Regulation
Official title: Increasing Children's Defending Behaviors: Using Deviance Regulation
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Bullying of Child
Keywords: Peer Relationship
Bullying Prevention
Lead sponsor: Auburn University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-12-23
Enrollment: 1564
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: 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.
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

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.

Detailed description: This study, conducted over the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years examined whether a DRT-based intervention activity resulted in greater increases in defending behaviors in response to witnessed bullying than a more traditional, empathy-based activity. Thirteen schools were randomly assigned to receive either the DRT-based or empathy-based activity, and all fourth-grade and fifth-grade children were invited to participate. Defending behaviors were assessed approximately two weeks prior to participation in the activity and at three-month and six-month follow-ups. Data collected included peer-reports, teacher-reports, and self-reports. Also examined was whether popularity, peer acceptance, prosocial behavior, peer victimization, empathy, self-efficacy for defending, moral disengagement, or gender moderated intervention effects.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

* None.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Changes in Peer-reported Defending across The School Year
timeFrame: three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up
measure: Changes in Self-reported Defending across the School Year
timeFrame: three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up
measure: Changes in Teacher-reported Defending across the School Year
timeFrame: three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Changes in Perceptions of Defenders across The School Year
timeFrame: three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up
measure: Changes in Peer Aggression across the School Year
timeFrame: three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up
measure: Changes in Peer Victimization across the School Year
timeFrame: three-month follow-up; six-month follow-up
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Auburn
country: United States
facility: Auburn University
state: Alabama
Study officials:
affiliation: Auburn University
name: Wendy P Gordon
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: 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.