Introduction

Modern communication technologies provide a range of positive uses to all age groups. For children and adolescents, the internet is a vast resource of information for school, work, news, and any other topic of interest, and also for getting and staying in contact with friends and peers and for the exchange of views, ideas, and arguments. It facilitates the access to groups of like-minded people, for example, regarding hobbies or problems (e.g., online self-help groups). Platforms like social networking sites provide opportunities to test out identities and to present oneself to others. However, many of these opportunities can also pose a potential risk to children’s and youths’ psychological well-being. Harmful behavior, such as aggression or autoaggression (i.e., self-harm), may be reinforced by “meeting” others with similar harmful views or by different social mechanisms of digital communication. In Germany, cyberbullying has been found to be a serious problem with up to 22% reporting to have perpetrated cyberbullying and with up to 28% reporting to have become victims of cyberbullying sometimes or more often during the previous year (Festl & Quandt, 2016).

The present cyberbullying preventive intervention program “Media Heroes” (Schultze-Krumbholz, Zagorscak, Siebenbrock, & Scheithauer, 2012b) was developed in Germany as part of the more comprehensive European Cyberbullying Intervention Project (ECIP, www.bullyingandcyber.net). It was developed, implemented, and first evaluated in 2011. At the time, an overview of the then existing studies showed estimated prevalence rates of up to 43% for victims and 33% for bullies (Schultze-Krumbholz & Scheithauer, 2010), which were quite alarming numbers and emphasized the need for prevention strategies against cyberbullying. Up until then, no evaluated prevention programs targeting cyberbullying existed in Germany. “Media Heroes” was one of the first German programs specifically designed to prevent cyberbullying, which was also empirically evaluated in a pre-post-follow-up waiting control group design.

The present program was awarded second place of the European Crime Prevention Award in 2015. Since cyberbullying has also been linked to media-specific risk factors such as risky self-disclosure, sharing of passwords, and deviant online behavior, the prevention of highly prevalent cyberbullying behaviors is also (online) crime prevention. “Media Heroes” is listed in the German “Grüne Liste Prävention” (“Green List of Prevention,” Communities That Care; www.gruene-liste-praevention.de), which is a database that classifies prevention programs by the degree to which their effectiveness has been demonstrated to assist practitioners in their selection of interventions.

“Media Heroes” as it is presented here is thus far available in German language (“Medienhelden”) and is tailored to the German school system. The program has already been implemented in other German-speaking EU states (e.g., Austria) and can also be implemented in countries with German-speaking minorities (e.g., in Belgium). A Spanish version with adaptations is currently being tested in Colombia (Chaux, Scheithauer, Schultze-Krumbholz, & Zagorscak, 2014). An English version with the respective tailoring to the different school systems is in preparation and will be available within the next 2 years.

What is the program and how is it delivered?

“Media Heroes” aims to prevent cyberbullying and to promote online self-protection and is suitable for students in Grades 7 to 10 (approx. ages 12–16), their teachers, and their parents. The program consists of a structured manual, which was published as a book in 2012. The first chapters offer theoretical knowledge on the phenomenon of cyberbullying, the scientific basis of the program, an overview of the most popular technological communication devices and channels, and the (preliminary) results of the evaluation study. The second part of the manual consists of recommendations and instructions for teachers on how to conduct the specific, consecutive, modularized sessions, including the respective teaching materials (on CD-ROM).

The present program is a universal preventive intervention targeting not only perpetrators and victims of cyberbullying, but also the noninvolved students to foster future intervention of peers. On the one hand, peers play a crucial role since adolescents prefer to turn to peers and friends for support instead of adults (Perren et al., 2012a; Stacey, 2009; Topçu, Erdur-Baker, & Çapa-Aydin, 2008). On the other hand, the involvement of the whole group of students is important in order to address the group dynamics that are maintaining (cyber-) bullying situations (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Björkqvist, Österman, & Kaukiainen, 1996).

After successful development and evaluation, a train-the-trainer approach (for school teachers, social workers, and school police officers) has been developed for the purpose of implementation and roll-out of the program. These training sessions introduce the participants to the program, its aims, and its methods. Participants can discuss open questions and practice the methods and exercises. Thereafter, the teachers and youth work professionals can carry out the program within their usual structured work settings (e.g., the classroom environment) with the help of the materials. They are then able to conduct the program on their own, which ensures sustainability over time and student cohorts. Utilizing external experts and additional monetary resources is not necessary with the structured and manualized “Media Heroes” program, although it is possible and is implemented thus by licensed partners, for example, in Austria (www.medienhelden.at). Meanwhile, a licensed, external German enterprise (stravio UG, Berlin) offers the train-the-trainer workshops for implementation of the program in schools.

The theoretical model behind the program

“Media Heroes” is based on knowledge about the association between cyberbullying and empathy and perspective taking. Previous research has shown empathy to be negatively related to cyberbullying perpetration (see Schultze-Krumbholz, Schultze, Zagorscak, Wölfer, & Scheithauer, 2016), i.e., perpetrators of cyberbullying display less empathic feelings generally and toward victims of cyberbullying. Moreover, 95% of perpetrators perceive their behavior to be harmless (Shapka, 2011). Therefore, “Media Heroes” addresses and trains students in empathy and perspective taking through different methods such as a film of a cyberbullying situation ("Let's fight it together", Childnet International (Producer), 2007) and role plays.

Overall the program relies on social learning and cognitive-behavioral theory. It thus incorporates methods like peer-to-peer and student-to-parent learning. The different sessions are clearly structured and offer an active learning environment that reinforces positive behaviors of students. On a more fine-grained perspective, “Media Heroes” is theoretically based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991). A first empirical test showed the more parsimonious Theory of Reasoned Action (Madden, Ellen, & Ajzen, 1992) to be a fitting and valid theoretical framework for this program (Zagorscak, Schultze-Krumbholz, Wölfer, & Scheithauer, in preparation). Fig. 11.1 shows the process model that builds the basis of the present program. We hypothesized that education through the conveyance of potential negative impact for the victims and by promoting empathy with the victims influences attitudes in a positive way. Further, one exercise examines the legal situation and potential consequences for perpetrators of cyberbullying. This is implemented in a moral dilemma discussion (simulated court session), which additionally aims at moral reasoning. Cyberbullying can be viewed as immoral behavior because it affects the welfare and rights of the victims through intentional behavior (Bussey, Fitzpatrick, & Raman, 2015, p. 31). Previous studies showed a link between moral reasoning or moral disengagement, respectively, and cyberbullying. Moral disengagement allows people to selectively act immorally toward groups or individuals without violating their general moral standards through a number of cognitive justifications (see Bandura, 2002). Adolescents with higher scores on moral disengagement are more likely to engage in cyberbullying (Bussey et al., 2015; Gini, Pozzoli, & Hymel, 2014). Further, studies on traditional bullying also showed that some subgroups of bystanders (outsiders and unconcerned bystanders) are more morally disengaged than adolescents who support the victim by defending him or her, for example (Obermann, 2011). Working closely together with classmates in group exercises such as role plays, discussions, and the formulation of class rules enables the adolescents to get a more realistic impression of their peers’ actual norms regarding cyberbullying. Subjective norms, i.e., their beliefs of how others expect them to behave (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), may become more realistic as students learn that their peers do not actually expect them to bully others (for perpetrators) or that their peers expect them to intervene in cyberbullying incidents (for bystanders). Promoting social skills as well as media literacy and behavioral alternatives is expected to improve the perceived behavioral control, i.e., adolescents’ perceptions regarding the extent to which they can actually influence a situation. Using peer-to-peer and student-to-parent approaches as well as role plays for practicing alternative behavior, we aim to improve self-efficacy and self-esteem, which is expected to further contribute to perceived behavioral control. Together, attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral control are believed to influence behavioral intentions (for example, the intention not to post negative comments below possibly unfavorable pictures on social networks as tempting as this might be). According to Ajzen (1985), behavioral intentions directly influence actual behavior.

Different versions of the program for different needs

In accordance with different needs and resources of schools, administrations, and teachers, two versions of the program were developed representing different expenditure: an approximately 10-week program (also called “Media Heroes Curriculum”) with 90 min per week, and a 1-day intervention (subsequently referred to as the “Media Heroes Project Day”) consisting of four blocks of 90 min each. In the Curriculum, the weeks are further divided into steps. These two versions differ regarding elaborateness, number, and intensity of the exercises. Also, not all topics of the Curriculum are also included in the Project Day. Table 11.1 gives an overview of the content of the sessions and the program versions. Generally, we recommend implementing the Curriculum, because it provides the duration and intensity needed for long-term change, as previous studies on traditional bullying prevention have found dose effects (e.g., Ttofi & Farrington, 2011). However, conducting the Project Day is still to be preferred over not implementing any intervention at all (as will be shown in the empirical evidence section) and the Project Day can also serve as a first introduction to the program and testing the responses toward the program.

Table 11.2 gives an example of a typical program session of the Curriculum.

The intervention levels of the program

“Media Heroes” addresses cyberbullying on different levels: the individual level, the classroom level, and the family level. On the individual level, students take part in the training of different individual social skills such as empathy and perspective-training. Through a simulated (classroom) court session, the individual’s moral reasoning is challenged and sharpened to make students aware that there may be a freedom of speech, but that this does not automatically justify the denigration of others. Further, sessions in the computer lab where students teach each other (peer-to-peer approach) about privacy settings and other online self-protection strategies on their most popular (social networking) sites extend the repertoire of the individual’s action strategies. The exercises on awareness raising and perspective taking further aim at an attitude change toward the acceptability of cyberbullying at the individual level. Also, the targeted change of adolescents’ subjective norms takes place on the individual level.

At the classroom level, the program aims to raise awareness of the negative consequences of cyberbullying especially for the victims and to increase the motivation to intervene when peers become aware of cyberbullying incidents. Many of the exercises are designed to foster positive class norms and negative attitudes toward cyberbullying. Working on the topic as a class, students are expected to reach a social consensus and classroom norm not supporting cyberbullying behavior. This is an important aspect since the behavior of the so-called bystanders supports the social consensus (Quirk & Campbell, 2015). Letting students work together in groups and letting them prepare materials by themselves in groups (with supervision and guidance by the teacher) aim at promoting a positive class climate. At the classroom level, the teacher is also educated, for example through additional information and material in the theoretical background of the manual. Raising awareness and providing potential intervention and prevention strategies is an important aspect for teachers, because many campaigns and approaches recommend that students confide in teachers or adults in general. However, often teachers (and parents) are left on their own to deal with cyberbullying incidents when approached by students. If adults lack helpful advice and strategies once adolescents have mustered the courage to confide in them, students might feel even more isolated and disappointed afterward.

To include parents in the program on the family level, students prepare a parent evening (student-to-parent approach) in which they decide on the content and the forms of presentation and the teacher only assists them and monitors time management of the preparatory activities. Besides the repetition and reflection of the program’s contents by the students on the individual level, this activity aims at educating parents on modern communication technologies, but also on their children’s (newly acquired) skills in handling them. Parents’ confidence is expected to increase when the students present them with their knowledge of online self-protection strategies (such as knowing where to change privacy settings). Students may also decide to plan a session where they actually teach their parents these strategies and repeat the respective sessions of the program with their parents thus specifically educating their parents in online safety. We also expect this parent evening to at least initiate communication between students and parents about the technology. Fig. 11.2 summarizes the different components of “Media Heroes” on the different intervention levels.

“Media Heroes” works at different stages of the prevention process, but it is not suitable as a direct intervention for a current severe cyberbullying incident. Perren et al. (2012b) applied the stages of prevention (Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994) to cyberbullying prevention. They allocated specific prevention approaches to these levels. Fig. 11.3 shows an adaptation of this categorization and includes the components also present in “Media Heroes.” This program aims to reduce risks before cyberbullying takes place by including exercises on privacy settings (Weeks 5 and 6, see Table 11.1), for example. Empathy training and educating students on different perspectives and feelings is also suited for reducing risks. Including all students into the program, teaching noninvolved students about the consequences for victims, and providing them with behavioral alternatives, enables social support during and right after a cyberbullying incident from peers and friends, but also from teachers and parents through the awareness raising and education of these groups of adults. The same is applicable for emotional support from peers, friends, teachers, and parents after a cyberbullying incident to buffer potential negative impact on the victim.

Evidence for effectiveness to date

“Media Heroes” was one the first cyberbullying prevention programs to be evaluated empirically. Data were collected at three time points: before the intervention (January 2011), right after the conclusion of the intervention (April 2011), and about six months after the implementation of the program (November-December 2011). At the first data assessment, 897 students from 35 classes from five schools in a German major city (inhabitants > 1,000,000) participated in the first data assessment of the study. Students were from Grades 7 to 10 with an average age of 13.45 (SD = 1.07) years. Four-hundred-and-thirty-nine students were part of the nonintervention control group, 286 participated in the Curriculum, and 172 received the Project Day. This corresponds to 16 control group classes, 12 classes conducting the Curriculum, and 7 classes implementing the Project Day. Depending on the outcome variables that were examined in the different analyses, sample sizes differed due to different completion rates.

One of the participating schools was a general high school while the other four schools were college-preparatory schools. The sample was a self-selective convenience sample. Schools were asked to provide waiting-control-group classes (i.e., classes that did not take part in the program while the evaluation study was still ongoing, but received training and the materials after the end of the study) along with intervention classes. Schools were asked to randomly assign their classes to the intervention and control conditions. Data were collected using standardized questionnaires during regular schools lessons. Questionnaires were also distributed to the teachers and parents.

Program acceptance

The questionnaire included questions on the program acceptance and perception. Further, teachers completed standardized protocol sheets after each session of the Curriculum or at the end of the Project Day, respectively, regarding feasibility, methods, contents, quality of the materials and instructions, and acceptance of each session.

Program acceptance among participants was very good overall and shows that “Media Heroes” is suited well for the school context. Of participating adolescents 46.4% liked the program much or very much. An additional 32.1% liked it at least partly. The most popular components of the Curriculum were the work with the movie “Let’s fight it Together” (Childnet International (Producer), 2007), the exercises in the schools’ computer labs, and the role plays. Regarding their subjective perception of whether “Media Heroes” led to a decrease in cyberbullying 38.6% of the students answered “much” or “very much” and 22.1% believed that this effect took place “partly.” Among teachers, acceptance of the program was even higher than among the students: None of the teachers liked the program “a little” or “not at all”; 25% liked it partly and 75% liked it much or very much. Nearly two-thirds of the participating teachers believed that the program decreased cyberbullying “much” or “very much.” Fig. 11.4 shows the results for these subjective perceptions of students and teachers. Analyses of the session protocols revealed that on average teachers judged the materials and exercises as “satisfactory” or “very satisfactory” (Schultze-Krumbholz, Wölfer, Zagorscak, & Scheithauer, 2012a).

Program effectiveness

A number of analyses were conducted of various aspects and outcome variables based on standardized measures. The main focus was on the improvement of the social skills “empathy” and “perspective taking,” personal well-being, and the perpetration of cyberbullying. In the following, we give a summary of the evaluation results that have been published to date.

Perpetration of cyberbullying increased over time in the control group, remained stable in the Project Day (short) intervention group, and decreased in the Curriculum (long) intervention group, which indicates a positive long-term effect on this behavior, i.e., a long-term decrease in cyberbullying perpetration (Schultze-Krumbholz, Zagorscak, Wölfer, & Scheithauer, 2014a; Schultze-Krumbholz, Zagorscak, Wölfer, & Scheithauer, 2014b). Students in the control group also generally displayed development-related increases in different forms of aggression, which were to be expected considering the developmental courses of aggression in this age group. However, these developments were not shown by participants of the intervention groups. “Media Heroes” seems to be able to attenuate development-related increases in aggression. We did not find any effects on cyberbullying victimization (Chaux, Velásquez, Schultze-Krumbholz, & Scheithauer, 2016). We believe this might be due to the specific characteristics of cyberbullying. While we can reach perpetrators of cyberbullying who attend the class in which the program is implemented, we cannot deliver the intervention to nonclassmate perpetrators. Students who are victimized by nonclassmates online therefore are not less victimized after the intervention. However, they might be more capable of buffering negative impact after “Media Heroes.” This needs to be examined in further analyses.

Notably, willingness to participate in or initiate cyberbullying only decreased in the long intervention group while no significant changes could be found for the control and short intervention groups (Schultze-Krumbholz et al., 2014b). Willingness can be viewed as a behavioral readiness, which leads to behavioral intentions.

Adolescents in the control group showed a decrease in empathy over time, which is in accordance with previous studies (e.g., Van der Graaff et al., 2013), showing this to be normal at this developmental stage, especially for boys. Participants of both intervention groups did not show this decrease. Regarding perspective taking, both intervention groups showed improvements compared to the control group (Schultze-Krumbholz et al., 2014a). Multilevel analyses revealed that classes with high aggregated scores of perspective taking, showed stronger decreases in cyberbullying behavior, indicating a synergistic overall dynamic and emphasizing the importance of perspective-taking training within the framework of a program like “Media Heroes” (Wölfer et al., 2014). Another analysis further showed that the improvement in perspective taking in the long intervention group did not differ significantly from the control group, whereas the short intervention group differed significantly. The short intervention may be able to influence thoughts and cognitions, but not feelings regarding cyberbullying and was not able to reduce cyberbullying within the whole intervention group. However, the analyses showed that students who increased in their perspective taking, decreased their cyberbullying behavior. This indicates that this type of intervention is not suitable for every participant (Schultze-Krumbholz et al., 2016).

Regarding outcome variables related to personal well-being, we found that adolescents from the long intervention group showed increases in self-esteem and subjective health six months after termination of the intervention (Schultze-Krumbholz et al., 2014a).

In another analysis, we explored spillover effects of “Media Heroes” on traditional bullying. A significant effect on traditional bullying perpetration was found for the long intervention group: while initial nonperpetrators increased in traditional bullying perpetration in the control and short intervention groups, nonperpetrators remained nonperpetrators in the long intervention group. For adolescents who were both cyber- and traditional bullies before the intervention, a decrease in traditional bullying was found in the short and long intervention groups. The long intervention thus prevented nonperpetrators from becoming perpetrators and reduced traditional bullying in students who already were perpetrators. Regarding traditional victimization, the analysis revealed that victimization increased in the control group while the long intervention prevented nonvictims from becoming victims and reduced traditional victimization in those adolescents who were victims before the intervention (Chaux et al., 2016).

The existing evaluation results and the results presented here, especially regarding the comparison between the two versions of “Media Heroes,” implicate that effectiveness of the program increases with increasing duration of program implementation (cf. Wölfer et al., 2014). The “Media Heroes Project Day” seems suitable to maintain the status quo and to counteract development-related deteriorations while the “Media Heroes Curriculum” seems adequate to achieve long-term improvements. In case of resource shortage of the school, we recommend to at least implement the Project Day though the Curriculum is more ideal. In any case, “Media Heroes” presents an effective approach to address and counter cyberbullying among adolescents.