Successful and Emerging Cyberbullying Prevention Programs: A Narrative Review of Seventeen Interventions Applied Worldwide

Summary

This narrative review synthesises evidence from seventeen cyberbullying prevention programmes implemented worldwide, focusing on those employing whole-school approaches and teacher professional development. The authors identify critical success factors—including strong theoretical frameworks, combined proactive and reactive strategies, baseline needs assessments, and reduced digital device usage—and recommend updating interventions with digital tools and games whilst maintaining face-to-face engagement. The review suggests that effective prevention requires coordination across multiple stakeholder groups and integration of physical activity and digital literacy components.

UK applicability

The recommendations for whole-school cyberbullying prevention, teacher training models, and balanced digital-physical approaches are directly applicable to UK school policy and practice. UK schools implementing anti-cyberbullying programmes may benefit from adopting the identified theoretical frameworks and multicomponent strategies, though localisation to UK contexts and regulatory requirements would be necessary.

Key measures

Programme components, theoretical frameworks, intervention strategies (proactive and reactive), baseline needs assessments, physical activity integration, digital device usage reduction, trainer models (lead and peer), and use of games and apps in interventions

Outcomes reported

The narrative review examined seventeen successful and emerging cyberbullying prevention programmes implemented globally, evaluating their strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improvement. The study identified key intervention components including teacher professional development, whole-school approaches, and integration of digital and face-to-face strategies.

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