Year: 2023
Type: report
Study designs: Randomized Controlled Trial, Clinical Trial
Abstract: According to UNESCO, one-third of the world's youths are victims of bullying, which deteriorates academic performance and mental health, and increases suicide ideation and the risk of committing suicide.This paper analyzes a four-month parent-directed intervention designed to foster empathy in middle schoolers in China.Our implementation and evaluation study enrolled 2,246 seventh and eighth graders and their parents, whom we assigned, at the classroom level, to the control or intervention condition randomly.We measured, before and after the intervention, parental investments, children's empathy, and self-reported bullying perpetration and victimization incidents.Our analyses show that the intervention increased investments and empathy and reduced bullying incidents.In addition, we measured costs and found that it costs $12.50 for our intervention to reduce one bullying incident.Our study offers a scalable and lowcost strategy that can inform public policy on bullying prevention in other similar settings.
DOI: 10.3386/w30827
Authors: Flavio Cunha, Qinyou Hu, Yiming Xia, Naibao Zhao
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4319997041