Effectiveness of anti-cyberbullying educational programs: A socio-ecologically grounded systematic review and meta-analysis

The effectiveness of anti-cyberbullying interventions reported in the literature has been mixed even when the pedagogical organization of the programs were taken into account. To gain deeper insight into the relationship between pedagogical design principles of anti-cyberbullying interventions and their program effectiveness, this study comprises a systematic review and analysis of the pedagogical characteristics and meta-analyses of anti-cyberbullying educational programs for adolescents published up to March 2020. Nineteen independent studies from over 2700 articles resulting from systematic searches of six database services met the study selection criteria. A detailed integrated socio-ecological framework was constructed to reveal, for each program component in the selected intervention studies, whether intrapersonal learning, interpersonal interactions, or community-oriented events were involved, and the stakeholders targeted. This pedagogical analysis identified five subgroups. Meta-analysis results of the 19 selected programs found small effect sizes overall for cyber-aggression and cyber-victimization. Further explorations showed that the pedagogical design features statistically significantly moderated the effectiveness of the anti-cyberbullying intervention. The subgroup analysis showed that only programs involving interpersonal interactions and stakeholder agency demonstrated superior program effectiveness. Due to the small number of studies that provided data on long-term programs effectiveness, the meta-analysis findings were inconclusive. •An integrated socio-ecological framework for anti-cyberbullying programs has been constructed.•Five types of programs are identified and categorized into either agency- or information- oriented.•Meta-analysis affirms small effect sizes of current programs in reducing cyberbullying incidents.•Programs merely engaging stakeholders without activating their agency are unlikely to be effective.•Programs activating teacher and/or student agency are more effective in preventing cyberbullying.