The effectiveness of bullying control training on the health-promoting behaviors of adolescent bullies: the mediating role of perceived social support

This study aimed to evaluate The effectiveness of bullying control training on the health-promoting behaviors of adolescent bullies: the mediating role of perceived social support.

Methods and Materials: 

The study design was quasi-experimental with pre- and post-test and one-month follow-up with experimental and control groups. The statistical population consisted of adolescents aged 14 to 17 years old from public schools of District 17 in Tehran. 40 adolescents who were compatible with inclusion criteria and obtained a high score in the Harter bullying scale were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups. The research tools consisted of the Perceived social support scale by zimet et al. (1988) and the Health Promoting Behavior of Walker et al. (1987), which was completed in three phases (pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up) by both groups. The Bullying Control Education program was implemented at eight sessions of 90 minutes for the experimental group. Structural modeling with minor least squares approach was used in several multi-response patterns using SPSSV22 and SmartPLSV3.3 software for data analysis.

The results showed that Bullying Control Education had a positive and significant effect on Social Support and Health Promoting Behaviors in the post-test and follow-up phases. The results also showed that Bullying Control Education has an indirect and significant effect on Health Promoting Behaviors due to social support. The research model in the post-test phase was 51%, and in the follow-up phase, 54% of the variance of Health Promoting Behaviors.

Based on the results of this study, it can be said that the effectiveness of Bullying Control Education on Health Promoting Behaviors with the mediating role of Perceived Social Support is desirable. Therefore, teachers' knowledge, parents, psychologists, consultants, and other educational professionals from these variables can be helpful.