Volume_5_Issue_4_Digest

8 TPC Digest Aida Midgett Diana Doumas Dara Sears Amanda Lundquist Robin Hausheer A Bystander Bullying Psychoeducation Program With Middle School Students A Preliminary Report Bullying is a prevalent problem youth face nationwide. Approximately one in three students are bullied at school, while 70% observe bullying at some point in time during their educational experience. Moreover, bullying escalates during middle school when aggressive behaviors become normalized and students are attempting to establish themselves within the social hierarchy. Therefore, it is important for middle school counselors to have access to effective intervention programs and take on a leadership role in program implementation. Comprehensive, school-wide interventions are considered the standard for practice; however, they can be difficult to implement. Additionally, there is evidence that programs that do not place a high demand for time and resources on schools may be effective. Stand-alone bystander programs that train students to be peer advocates provide a promising approach to bullying intervention. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to serve as a first step in extending the literature by evaluating a brief, stand-alone bystander psychoeducation program in a middle school setting. We also were interested in developing a counselor-based program developed to teach students who are bystanders (i.e., who observe bullying at school) to learn to identify bullying behaviors and intervene as “defenders.”