KiVa Anti-bullying Program in Chile: Evaluation of Effectiveness With and Without the Digital Game Component (KiVa-Chile)

Universidad de los Andes, Chile

Status: Completed

Conditions: Bullying

Treatments: Other: KiVa program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02898324

AKA-EDU/15

Details and patient eligibility

About

Bullying is a major problem worldwide and, with no exception, in Chile. Bullying is defined as a systematic aggressive behavior against a victim who cannot defend himself or herself. Victims suffer many consequences such as social isolation, psychological maladjustment, and self-injury behavior. Additionally, bullies have a higher risk for conduct problems and substance use disorders. These problems appear to last in time, affecting mental health even years later since the experience of bullying.

There are few studies in Chile aiming to determine the prevalence of bullying. In one of such studies, 47% of the students reported having been bullied during the last month before the application of the questionnaire. Even though there are many initiatives and guidelines in Chile supported by the government to help schools in order to deal with bullying, there is no any cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) aiming to assess the effectiveness of an anti-bullying program.

KiVa anti-bullying prevention program contains universal and indicated actions. Main universal actions for 5 to 6 graders consist of 10 two-hours lessons given during a year and an online game, which have the aim to raise awareness of the role of the group in bullying, increase empathy and promote strategies to support victims. Indicated actions consist of a set of discussion groups with the victims and with the bullies with proper follow-up.

The aims of this study are: 1) To develop a culturally appropriate version of the Kiva material, and 2) to test its effectiveness of KiVa program with and without the online game, to reduce bullying behavior among low-income primary schools in Santiago using a cluster RCT design with three arms: i) KiVa full program group, ii) KiVa without online game program group, and iii) Control group.

Enrollment: 4,485 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 9 to 14 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria for schools:

• Primary education
• Co-educational
• High vulnerability (measured by the Chilean index IVESINAE >75%)
• Location: Santiago, Chile.
• Exact two classes per level (5th Grade and 6th Grade), during the intervention.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

4,485 participants in 3 patient groups

KiVa program full

Experimental group

Description:

The schools allocated in this arm will receive the Chilean adaptation of KiVa program with all its universal and indicated actions.

Treatment:

Other: KiVa program

KiVa program w/o the digital component

Experimental group

Description:

The schools allocated in this arm will receive the Chilean adaptation of KiVa program without the digital component (online game)

Treatment:

Other: KiVa program

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The schools allocated in this arm will not receive the KiVa program. If successful, these schools will receive the program the following academic year.