The Efficacy and Feasibility of the Arizona Attorney General’s School-based Cyber-safety Promotion and Cyberbullying Prevention Intervention among Middle School Adolescents in Oman. Psychology in Schools. http://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22832

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of Social Networking Safety Promotion (SNSP) and Cyberbullying Prevention (CBP) presentation of the Arizona Attorney General’s guided by the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM).
Methods: A quasi-experimental (a pre- post-test) was used with two groups with random assignment to intervention. A total of 389 adolescents in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades at a public middle school in Muscat city were involved in the study procedures and randomly divided into two groups (the experimental group (n=186) and the waiting list group (n=203). The Risk Behavior Diagnostic Scale (RBDS), Behavioral Intention and Attitudes Scale (BIAS), Coping Strategies with Cyberbullying Scale (CSCS), and Self-Protection Behavior Intentions Scale (SPIS) were used. Five separated presentations (each presentation was 60 mins, one presentation per week) were introduced to the adolescents in the experimental group.
Results: the feasibility process indicated some modifications in the original presentation (two more presentations were added, more examples and case studies in Arabic, and introduce some articles from Omani criminal law, time was extended to 60 mins for each presentation). The ANCOVA results indicated the efficacy of interventions in changing adolescents’ attitudes and behavioral intentions against cyberbullying and promoting their security and safety during their use of social networks. Also, the intervention has a significant effect on the four EPPM components (susceptibility, severity, Self- efficacy, and self-efficacy responses) and the participants learned coping skills to deal with cyberbullying incidents.
Recommendations: The theoretical and practical suggestions and implications of these results were discussed.