Determinants of defending in prejudice-based bullying situations: Findings from the GATE-BULL project

This symposium, with work from scholars from 5 different countries, looks at how (cyber)bullying can be addressed adequately. The first paper reports the results of an explorative, qualitative study amongst Swedish high school students. This study reveals that these students consider the creation of supportive environments and the promotion of internet literacy, as key elements to cultivate resilience among younger students. These two elements are further reflected upon in the other contributions. Paper two, for instance, reports the results of a study on the effectiveness of the Italian school-based program NoTrap!, which is based on peer-led approaches to prevent and combat (cyber-)bullying. This paper pays particular attention to factors that moderate the program’s effectiveness (e.g. in promoting resilience). Paper three focuses on the important role of bystanders, especially in the case of bias-based bullying, and looks at the potential of technological tools (i.e. a game) to promote positive bystandership. In the last paper, the attention shifts towards the role of online social competencies (OSC) as an important part of adolescents’ overall media literacy and as a possible protective factor against cyberbullying experiences. This paper provides an overview of what OSC entail (according to the literature) and presents the results of a pilot study amongst 1.508 pupils from seven German schools, that aimed to develop a self-report measure for OSC.