Assessing the Feasibility of a Text Message Intervention to Promote Bystander Intervention to Adolescents

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and implementation of a text message intervention to teach adolescents bystander intervention strategies. Adolescents (N = 123) engaged daily for 15 days with bystander education materials and questions sent to them by text message to their personal cell phones. The likelihood to intervene on social media increased over the course of the intervention, but the same was not found for likelihood to intervene in person. The likelihood to intervene in the individual bystander intervention scenarios presented were however significant predictors of likelihood to intervene on social media and in person. This study provides promising preliminary evidence that delivering bystander intervention education to adolescents via their cell phones has the potential to teach them how to recognize and respond as a bystander to bullying and harassment among their peers, especially in online spaces such as social media.KEYWORDS: Text message interventionbystander interventioncyberbullyingbullyingharassmentsocial media Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationNotes on contributorsRebecca R. OrtizDr. Rebecca Ortiz, is Associate Professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Her research examines how media and communication can be used to improve public health and well-being, with a focus on sexual health promotion, sexual violence prevention, and youth/young adult audiences.Andrea SmithDr. Andrea Smith, is Assistant Professor in the communication department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her research examines how social media messages influence audiences’ perceptions of health-related issues.