Effectiveness of the Whole School-Based Program for Equipping High School Counselors with Strategies of Coping with Cyberbullying and Cyberbullying Awareness

Abstract

Cyberbullying means violence via information tools. This issue is regarded as an important risk threatening young people as information tools have been increasingly becoming popular recently. School counselors play a key role in briefing and awareness efforts on cyberbullying within the school system. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the program for equipping high school counselors with coping strategies with cyberbullying and cyberbullying awareness which was prepared on the basis of the whole-school approach. The study was conducted in the quasi-experimental design. 24 school counselors (12 each in experimental and control groups) participated in the study group. Pretest, posttest and follow-up test were performed. The four-session, whole school-based psychoeducational program was applied to the school counselors in the experimental group. No procedures were followed in the control group. Cyberbullying Awareness Scale for Teachers (CAST) and Scale of Coping Strategies with Cyberbullying for Teachers (SCSCT) were utilized as data collection instruments. Results of the posttest performed after the experimental procedure show a significant difference in favor of the experimental group for both scales and the effect size was high. Results of the follow-up test performed two months later indicate that the levels achieved from the scores of CAST and SCSCT were preserved. The effectiveness of the program for coping with cyberbullying and increasing cyberbullying awareness which was prepared for school counselors in terms of cyberbullying awareness and strategies of coping with cyberbullying was discussed within the scope of relevant literature.