Effects of the Prima anti-bullying program on victimization, classroom peer context and defending behavior Marloes van Verseveld, Minne Fekkes, Ruben Fukkink & Ron Oostdam Background and aims Victimization among children is associated with adverse effects on their physical and psychological health and many schools attempt to reduce bullying. The Dutch school-wide anti-bullying program ‘Prima’ was developed based on techniques and scientific insights that are known to be effective. We investigate the effects of the Prima anti-bullying program on students’ victimization, defending behavior, and the classroom peer context in Grades 3-6. Methods The study participants included 4,368 students from 32 primary schools. The schools were randomly assigned to three conditions. Condition A was offered a teacher-training, an online screening tool for bullying behavior, and a set of practice- and evidence-based guidelines to deal with difficult bullying situations. Condition B included all of condition A plus a series of eight student lessons. Condition C was the control group. A questionnaire was filled out by the students before and after the intervention. Program effects were based on self- and peer-reports. Results Prima reduced students’ peer-reported victimization and the level of isolated students in the classroom. Students in the intervention conditions also reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy to defend victimized students in their classroom compared to students in the control condition. A trend effect of Prima was observed for students who were nominated as defender of victimized students by peers. The intervention condition with student lessons showed larger effects. Conclusions Our results suggest that Prima reduced victimization in intervention schools, especially in intervention schools that provided student lessons about bullying. The positive outcomes support previous findings on the effectiveness of Prima. Furthermore, our study underlines the importance to include student lessons in whole school anti-bullying programs that focus on creating a positive group norm and pro-social and defending behaviors.
MULTIFILE
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in December 2019 and the restrictive measures that were implemented to slow down the spread of the virus have had a significant impact on our way of life. The sudden shift from offline to online activities and work may have resulted in new cybersecurity risks. The present study therefore examined changes in the prevalence, nature and impact of cybercrime among Dutch citizens and SME owners, during the pandemic. Qualitative interviews with ten experts working at various public and private organizations in the Netherlands that have insights into cybercrime victimization and data from victim surveys administrated in 2019 and 2021 were analyzed. The results show that there was only a small, non-statistically significant increase in the prevalence of cybercrime during the pandemic among citizens and SME owners. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic did have an impact on the modus operandi of cybercriminals: victims indicated that a considerable proportion of the offenses was related to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the case of online fraud. Moreover, the use of new applications and programs for work was associated with an increased risk of cybercrime victimization during the COVID-19 crisis. These results suggest that increases in rates of registered cybercrime that were found in previous studies might be the consequence of a reporting effect and that cybercriminals adapt their modus operandi to current societal developments.
This research adopts a social constructionist perspective and utilizes qualitative inquiry with a generative approach (McNamee, Gergen, Camargo-Borges, Rasera, 2020). The focus lies on collaborative efforts between the researcher and trafficking survivors, aiming to mutually shape and understand the experiences of trafficking, while fostering relational agency. The aim is to co-construct a relational space in which counter-narratives on victimization can be generated. Ten interviews were carried out with women survivors of trafficking at the Anti-Trafficking System of the N.A.Ve Project (Veneto Region AntiTrafficking Network). These women were from different nationalities and experiences of exploitation. We referred to the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, and formulated an episodic interview (Flick, 2023) composed by circular and reflexive questions, as well as generative questions inspired by the items of the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory(Romaioli, 2022). The critical reflexivity of the researcher and the research team was enhanced through an autoethnography and reflection work. A reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) was performed on the gathered textual material, generating five themes: resources/strengths, relationships, future, helpful aspects, momentary feelings.This inquiry illustrates the potentials offered by a methodology inspired by a social constructionist perspective with a generative approach.
