Engaging Students in Bullying Prevention Efforts through Visualization

Bullying is a complex and abusive form of peer violence that has potentially serious social and mental health consequences for children and adolescents. This project is the development of a game that will allow students to play the role of a bystander in a virtual setting, in which they choose what to do when they see the bullying happening. The expectation is that through role-playing as a bystander, the students will learn about how they can help in bullying situations. A small pilot study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the game thus far, gather suggestions for improvements, and to help model future studies.