Stepwise Development of a Text Messaging-Based Bullying Prevention Program for Middle School Students (BullyDown)

• Main Authors: Ybarra, Michele L (Author), Prescott, Tonya L (Author), Espelage, Dorothy L (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: JMIR Publications, 2016-06-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2291-5222; 10.2196/mhealth.4936
• Keywords: Information technology; T58.5-58.64; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: JMIR mHealth and uHealth, Vol 4, Iss 2, p e60 (2016)

BackgroundBullying is a significant public health issue among middle school-aged youth. Current prevention programs have only a moderate impact. Cell phone text messaging technology (mHealth) can potentially overcome existing challenges, particularly those that are structural (e.g., limited time that teachers can devote to non-educational topics). To date, the description of the development of empirically-based mHealth-delivered bullying prevention programs are lacking in the literature. ObjectiveTo describe the development of BullyDown, a text messaging-based bullying prevention program for middle school students, guided by the Social-Emotional Learning model. MethodsWe implemented five activities over a 12-month period: (1) national focus groups (n=37 youth) to gather acceptability of program components; (2) development of content; (3) a national Content Advisory Team (n=9 youth) to confirm content tone; and (4) an internal team test of software functionality followed by a beta test (n=22 youth) to confirm the enrollment protocol and the feasibility and acceptability of the program. ResultsRecruitment experiences suggested that Facebook advertising was less efficient than using a recruitment firm to recruit youth nationally, and recruiting within schools for the pilot test was feasible. Feedback from the Content Advisory Team suggests a preference for 2-4 brief text messages per day. Beta test findings suggest that BullyDown is both feasible and acceptable: 100% of youth completed the follow-up survey, 86% of whom liked the program. ConclusionsText messaging appears to be a feasible and acceptable delivery method for bullying prevention programming delivered to middle school students.