Cyberbullying Awareness Intervention in Digital and Non-digital Environment for Youth: Current Knowledge

Cyberbullying is widely acknowledged as a serious public health problem affecting adolescents and youth. Numerous digital and non-digital interventions have been developed to minimize cyberbullying occurrences considering the negative social and psychological effects of cyberbullying on youths’ development. Therefore, to gain deeper insight into the existing intervention programs, this review aims to examine the intervention programs for youth published up to 2022. The literature search was conducted on several academic databases, including ProQuest, Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. Youth who experienced cyberbullying reported negative emotions, including depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts. Regardless of their duration and intervention strategies, most studies, such as Conectado, Cyberprogram 2.0, and KiVa study show an increase in awareness of CB risk and decreased cyber aggression and victimization in the intervention, which consisted of digital, non-digital, focused, or universal approaches. Studies have shown that while some programs were designed to create awareness and prevent cyberbullying, others were designed to interfere with cyberbullying, and others were designed to accomplish both. Cyberbullying programs were more successful when administered by technology-savvy content experts compared to educators, regardless of the intervention type, program duration, or presence of parental engagement. Studies revealed that the crucial component of effective interventions includes awareness training, coping skills, and interactive serious games. The results of this review are crucial to influencing future investigations into intervention by tailoring digital programs for a wider audience, particularly those in underdeveloped nations. Recommendations for future research are provided.