TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 496 (i.e., confidence in doing something helpful, comfort in being an advocate, and belief in ability to reduce bullying). There was, however, no significant increase for identification of physical bullying, which 98% of students indicated they could identify at baseline. Results of this study suggest that a brief 90-minute training is effective in increasing peer advocates’ ability to identify different types of bullying behavior, knowledge of strategies that can be used to intervene when they observe bullying, and confidence to intervene. According to Polanin et al. (2012), these are the necessary components needed to equip bystanders to intervene when they observe bullying behavior. Thus, although we did not measure whether or not the peer advocates used the STAC strategies, the current findings suggest that the STAC intervention provided the students with the knowledge and confidence needed to intervene in bullying situations. We also were interested in examining specific areas of growth in knowledge and confidence. Examination of the item effect sizes revealed that of the significant items, three were in the medium range. These items were the STAC strategy “asking for help” and two confidence in intervening items (i.e., advocating to stop bullying and making a positive difference at school). One possible explanation for why students’ scores were lower on turning a bullying situation over to an adult may be related to the importance students place on peer relationships during middle school (Pellegrini & Long, 2002). Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Contrast Between Pre- and Post-Training Pre-Training Post-Training Item M SD M SD t (73) p Cohen’s d Identification of Bullying Verbal Bullying 3.44 .55 3.85 .36 6.23 < .001 .75 Social/Emotional Bullying 3.28 .70 3.78 .43 5.42 < .001 .68 Cyberbullying 3.43 .66 3.78 .49 4.77 < .001 .65 Physical Bullying 3.70 .49 3.84 .34 1.92 .06 .23 Knowledge of STAC Strategies Stealing the Show 2.97 .67 3.73 .50 8.50 < .001 .96 Accompanying Others 3.33 .58 3.80 .41 6.70 < .001 .84 Turning It Over 3.35 .63 3.66 .52 3.79 < .001 .44 Coaching Compassion 3.01 .69 3.74 .44 8.02 < .001 .96 Confidence Intervening Do Something 3.41 .59 3.76 .44 5.58 < .001 .74 Advocate 3.54 .57 3.74 .46 2.75 .008 .38 Make a Positive Difference 3.43 .51 3.64 .49 2.89 .005 .38 Total Scale (11 items) 3.35 .34 3.76 .31 9.77 < .001 .89