Empathic skills training as a means of reducing cyberbullying among adolescents: an empirical evaluation

Salem, AAMS, Al-Huwailah, AH, Abdelsattar, M, Al-Hamdan, NAH, Derar, E, Alazmi, S, Abu Al-Diyar, M and Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524, 2023. Empathic skills training as a means of reducing cyberbullying among adolescents: an empirical evaluation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20 (3): 1846. ISSN 1661-7827

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Abstract

Cyberbullying is a form of aggression in which electronic communication such as e-mails, mobile phone calls, text messages, instant messenger contacts, photos, social networking sites and personal webpages are used to threaten or intimidate individuals. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) counselling based on empathic training may reduce cyberbullying among adolescents. The present study investigated the impact of developing empathy skills in reducing cyberbullying among a sample of adolescents using two groups (i.e., an experimental group and control group). The experimental group received counselling intervention based on CBT with special focus on improving empathy whereas the control group received CBT general counselling. The participants comprised 217 adolescents (experimental group = 98 adolescents, control group = 119 adolescents) with a mean age of 15.1 years (SD ± 1.5). The measures included the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and the Bullying, Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents (BCS-A). Results showed that there were statistically significant differences on TEQ scores and BCS-A scores in the experimental and control groups after the intervention but more so in favor of the experimental group in terms of reduced levels of cyberbullying (both victimization and perpetration). Positive gains among the experimental group in both empathy and reduced cyberbullying remained at two-month follow-up. It is recommended that teachers and school counselors tackling cyberbullying should use empathy training as part of their cyberbullying prevention programs.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Creators:	Salem, A.A.M.S., Al-Huwailah, A.H., Abdelsattar, M., Al-Hamdan, N.A.H., Derar, E., Alazmi, S., Abu Al-Diyar, M. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher:	MDPI AG
Date:	19 January 2023
Volume:	20
Number:	3
ISSN:	1661-7827
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3390/ijerph20031846 DOI 1637909 Other
Rights:	© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	23 Jan 2023 11:10
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2023 11:10
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/48036

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