The development and pilot testing of an adolescent bullying intervention in Indonesia – the ROOTS Indonesia program

ABSTRACT

Bullying has been described as one of the most tractable risk factors for poor mental health and educational outcomes, yet there is a lack of evidence-based interventions for use in low and middle-income settings. We aimed to develop and assess the feasibility of an adolescent-led school intervention for reducing bullying among adolescents in Indonesian secondary schools. The intervention was developed in iterative stages: identifying promising interventions for the local context; formative participatory action research to contextualize proposed content and delivery; and finally two pilot studies to assess feasibility and acceptability in South Sulawesi and Central Java. The resulting intervention combines two key elements: 1) a student-driven design to influence students pro-social norms and behavior, and 2) a teacher-training component designed to enhance teacher’s knowledge and self-efficacy for using positive discipline practices. In the first pilot study, we collected data from 2,075 students in a waitlist-controlled trial in four schools in South Sulawesi. The pilot study demonstrated good feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. We found reductions in bullying victimization and perpetration when using the Forms of Bullying Scale. In the second pilot study, we conducted a randomised waitlist controlled trial in eight schools in Central Java, involving a total of 5,517 students. The feasibility and acceptability were good. The quantitative findings were more mixed, with bullying perpetration and victimization increasing in both control and intervention schools. We have designed an intervention that is acceptable to various stakeholders, feasible to deliver, is designed to be scalable, and has a clear theory of change in which targeting adolescent social norms drives behavioral change. We observed mixed findings across different sites, indicating that further adaptation to context may be needed. A full-randomized controlled trial is required to examine effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the program.

KEYWORDS:

• Bullying
• intervention
• adolescent
• Indonesia
• peer-led

Responsible Editor Jennifer Stewart Williams, Umeå University, Sweden

Responsible Editor Jennifer Stewart Williams, Umeå University, Sweden

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the teachers and school children who took part, our Government Partners from The Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection Protection (MoWECP), the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS), Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC), Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), Provincial Office of Bappeda at South Sulawesi, Provincial Office of Women Empowerment and Child Protection at South Sulawesi and Central Java City/District, Office of Bappeda at Makassar and Gowa City/District, Office of Women Empowerment and Child Protection at Makassar, Gowa, Semarang, and Klaten City/District Education Office at Makassar, Gowa, Semarang, and Klaten, Eka Simanjuntak and the team at Yayasan Nusantara Sejati for training in positive discipline; Child Protection specialists from UNICEF Indonesia, student facilitators from Yayasan Indonesia Mengabdi, the Child Forum of South Sulawesi and the Child Forum from Gowa, Yayasan Setara, Child Forum of Central Java and Semarang, Child Forum of Klaten and LPA Klaten; our teacher facilitators from Semarang City Education Office, Semarang City Office of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Yayasan Setara, the Klaten District Education Office and LPA Klaten, and finally the technical teams from Yayasan Indonesia Mengabdi, Central Java Provincial Office of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Klaten District Office of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Yayasan Setara and LPA Klaten.

Disclosure statement

LB acted as a consultant for the study, providing conceptual input, training staff, and was responsible for writing the manuscript.

Ethics and consent

The study received ethical clearance from the Medical and Health Research Ethics Committee (MHREC), Faculty of Medicine Gadjah Mada University in South Sulawesi: KE/FK/0255/EC/2017, and from the Health Research Ethic Committee, Universitas Negeri Semarang in Central Java. All adolescents gave informed, written assent. Written informed consent was obtained from teachers, with an opt-out consent process for parents for questionnaire data. All 21 parents of adolescents in the Agents of Change group gave full written consent.

Paper context

Bullying is a risk factor for poor mental health and educational outcomes. In Indonesia, over 20% of children in grades 7–9 reported experiencing bullying in the last month. We developed an adolescent-led school intervention for reducing bullying in Indonesia. It included two key elements: 1) a student-driven design to influence anti-conflict social norms and behavior among students; 2) a teacher-training component to enhance teacher’s knowledge and self-efficacy for using positive discipline practices.

Additional information

Funding

The ROOTS-Indonesia project is supported by the Swiss National Committee for UNICEF, UNICEF Indonesia, and the Government of Indonesia. Lucy Bowes received funds from Unicef Indonesia as a consultant on this project.

Notes on contributors

Lucy Bowes

LB and EM designed the article, and LB drafted the article. FA, RHH, SW, YA, HB, EW, RS, YK, YES were involved in data collection and running the project, as well as providing guidance to the design of the program. DFU helped organise the program and helped translate materials. All co-authors provided feedback for drafting the manuscript.