TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 490 specific to bullying. Given the demands already placed on teachers, a leadership role in program implementation can be better suited for school counselors. This research would form a foundation for establishing school counselors as bullying prevention and intervention leaders or liaisons, promoting program implementation at their school. This study serves as a first step in extending the literature by evaluating a brief, stand-alone bystander psychoeducation program in a middle school setting. In contrast to other brief, school- based programs, we chose to focus exclusively on bystander psychoeducation. We also were interested in developing a counselor-based psychoeducation program developed to teach students to identify bullying behaviors and intervene as “defenders.” To meet this aim, we created a new program, STAC (“stealing the show,” “turning it over,” “accompanying others,” and “coaching compassion”). STAC is a modification of the CARES bystander component of Bully-Proofing described above. STAC was adapted for school counselors to coordinate program implementation without relying on teacher instruction. The aim of the training is to teach students to identify bullying at school and intervene as peer advocates and to develop confidence with the STAC strategies. STAC is comprised of a didactic and experiential component described in detail in the psychoeducation program section. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether or not the STAC psychoeducation program (a) increases student ability to identify what different types of bullying look like, (b) increases student knowledge of specific strategies that can be used to intervene appropriately, and (c) increases student confidence in their ability to intervene. Method Participants Students from two Northwestern schools were recruited over two academic semesters. Students were recruited from a student body of 992 sixth through ninth grade students. One school counselor from each school coordinated program implementation. The school counselor at each school determined how many students per grade level to train as peer advocates. They made their determination based on the assumption that the training would be conducted annually, and that the number of peer advocates would increase over time. The school counselors at each school decided that if approximately 10% of the student body were trained annually, this would be sufficient to help shift the school bullying culture over time. Additionally, they made their determination based on the number of students they felt they could adequately support as peer advocates. After determining the number of students to train, a school counselor in collaboration with key teachers and staff at each school selected between 8–14 students per grade level to participate in the training. The counselors selected a total of 78 students who belonged to different peer groups and were perceived as possessing positive personal qualities such as maturity, leadership and responsibility. After students were selected, the school counselor at each school briefly met with each student to discuss potential interest in the training. The school counselor emphasized that they were chosen because adults in the school believed they had positive qualities and would make a difference. Of these, 75 students expressed interest in being part of the training. Interested students were sent home with an informed consent to be signed by a parent or caregiver and returned to the school counselor. A school counselor at each school followed up with a phone call to a parent or caregiver when necessary. Of these 75 parents or caregivers, 74 provided consent. After the school counselor collected the signed parental informed consent, she met with each student briefly to explain the research in more detail and collect student assent. All students with parental or caregiver consent assented to participate in the research.