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A statewide initiative sponsored by the West Virginia Legislature to pilot a WVU Extension cyber bullying prevention program with HSTA WV students
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Summer Kuhn, MPH,
Health Sciences and Technology Academy, West Virginia University, Shady Spring, WV
Donald Reed, MA,
4-H Youth Dev Center, WVU Extension Service - McDowell, Welch, WV
Cyberbullying has emerged as a growing concern among parents and educators in West Virginia and throughout the nation. Ninety percent of West Virginia young people in grades 4th to 8th admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online; fifty-two percent of high school students report having experienced some form of harassment by their peers through an electronic medium. In recent studies, bullying on line is occurring with youth as young as 7 years of age, with those 9 and 10 being the population targeted at the highest rate. The iRespect Cyber Bullying Prevention Curriculum was developed by a team at WVU Extension Service in cooperation with the WV Legislature. The curriculum is a result of WV's response to this issue - from public policy, to school based policy, and most importantly youth development programming. The iRESPECT program was piloted with HSTA students as a result of their concern about the cyber bullying epidemic in their communities. Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) a pipeline program that sets out to engage underrepresented and underserved high school students from rural WV to partake in community based research projects. During the pilot study there were a total of 109 HSTA students from various WV counties that participated in the cyber bullying prevention intervention. Results will display relationships between pre and post knowledge as well as attitude. In conclusion, pilot study results from this cohort will be used to evaluate the current curriculum for student impact, understanding and usefulness.
Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Public health or related education
Learning Objectives:
Describe cyber bullying curriculum
Discuss youth involvement youth in combating community related problems
Demonstrate how to this curriculum helps youth in WV become responsible leaders of their state, the country, and the world.
Keyword(s): Adolescents, Child Health Promotion
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been working in community based research for the last four years. My education background included biology and public health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
