The interplay between selected protective/risk factors and outcomes in a KiVa-antibullying program: Psychological networks perspective on potential mechanisms of change

0575687 - PSÚ 2024 eng A - Abstract
Klocek, Adam - Kollerová, Lenka - Netík, J. - Pour, M. - Havrdová, E.
The interplay between selected protective/risk factors and outcomes in a KiVa-antibullying program: Psychological networks perspective on potential mechanisms of change.
[European Conference on Developmental Psychology (ECDP) 2023 /20./. Turku, 28.08.2023-01.09.2023]
Method of presentation: Prezentace
URL events: https://sites.utu.fi/ecdp2023/ 
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA23-06289S
Institutional support: RVO:68081740
Keywords : antibullying intervention * mechanisms of change * psychological network models
OECD category: Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Objective: The KiVa anti-bullying program has been assumed to be effective in reducing bullying and victimization and increasing well-being due to several key protective or risk factors that could serve as mechanisms of change, including positive changes in attitudes against bullying (cognitive empathy towards victims or moral disengagement), social self-efficacy, and school belonging. The purpose of this study was to investigate interrelatedness between these selected factors and outcomes from a longitudinal psychological network perspective that allows exploratory scope into complex relations between multiple variables. Methods: The sample comprised 671 students (50% of whom were girls) from 24 primary schools in the Czech Republic who participated in the pilot KiVa effectiveness evaluation study for one academic year either in KiVa intervention group, or in wait-list control group. Data was collected in three measurement waves (September/October 2021, January/February 2022, June 2022). A multigroup lag-1 longitudinal vector auto-regressive cross-lagged panel network models was employed to analyze the panel data separately for both the intervention and control groups, yielding acceptable model fit. The final model was pruned for parsimony and bootstrapped (100 resamples), two within-person networks were computed per group: temporal and contemporaneous networks. Results: The preliminary results showed similarities between both groups suggesting similar mechanisms could play a role in both groups. The differences were discussed. The use of network methodology to model panel data may be useful in generating novel hypotheses for future research and practice of antibullying programs.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0345427