Speakers
Description
Cyberbullying has long been a significant concern due to its impact on youth wellbeing, and studies show its rates have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic. With worsening mental health issues among young people, new intervention approaches are urgently needed. Bystanders play an important role in the prevention, detection, and intervention of cyberbullying. However, various factors may influence their willingness to take proactive measures against cyberbullying incidents, such as empathy and moral disengagement. Therefore, we aim to develop an intervention that fosters empathy for victims and brings awareness to moral disengagement mechanisms among bystanders. We propose to achieve this goal through an experimental study with a between-groups pretest-posttest design, consisting of 4 sessions, with one-week interval between them. Participants will be 9th grade students. The experimental group will listen to AI-generated podcasts, featuring fictitious cyberbullying stories created by psychologists, designed to address empathy and the activation of moral disengagement mechanisms. Following this, a psychologist will led a discussion to deepen participants' understanding. The control group will receive no intervention during the experiment, but will receive it afterward. The expected results include a significant increase in empathy and a reduction in moral disengagement in the experimental group compared to the control group. Focusing on these constructs is one of the main challenges in dealing with cyberbullying, as they are difficult to address effectively. Thus, this study contributes by providing insights for bystander training programs through innovative and engaging methodologies that combine psychological knowledge with technology, enabling more proactive adolescents’ participation.
Keywords
cyberbullying, adolescents, innovative methodologies, AI tools
| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Quantitative method study |
|---|---|
| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Scientific |
