Effectiveness of cyberbullying prevention programmes on perpetration levels: a meta-analysis

Cyberbullying is a new and growing bullying practice that generates more harmful consequences than even traditional bullying. In this situation, the role of education plays a decisive role in the fight against this type of practice. In fact, in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of educational interventions on cyberbullying. However, the scientific literature shows hardly any conclusive results on the effectiveness of these interventions. Therefore, the aim of this meta-analysis is to analyse the effects that prevention programmes on cyberbullying have on the levels of perpetration among school students. To this end, a search strategy was carried out according to the PICOS framework and PRISMA criteria in five different databases: Web of Science (WoS), SCOPUS, Educational Research Information Centre (ERIC), PubMed, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink and Google Scholar. After searching and applying inclusion/exclusion filters, 9 studies were included in the meta-analysis, covering a total of 17 different interventions conducted between 2015 and 2019. These studies described the application of different intervention programmes to students aged between 10 and 17 years. The findings of this meta-analysis showed that educational prevention programmes could decrease levels of bullying perpetration (SMD = 0.08; 95% CI [0.05, 0.11]; p < 0.00001). Implications for strengthening and expanding cyberbullying prevention programmes in the educational context are discussed. In addition, future research is invited to go beyond the educational setting and consider other variables and factors that extend outside the educational environment and that are equally relevant, as well as to focus new lines of research on the important role of the cyberassistant student as an essential part of this type of situation.