Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: May 2, 2025
Date Accepted: Oct 3, 2025
The STAC-T Bullying Bystander App for Middle School Students: A Feasibility Study Examining Acceptability, Relevance, and Short-Term Outcomes
ABSTRACT
Background:
Bullying is a significant public health issue, with approximately 25% of middle school students reporting being a target of bullying in the past year. STAC is an evidence-based bullying bystander intervention for middle school students.
Objective:
We developed a technology-based version of STAC (STAC-T) and evaluated the acceptability and relevance of the program, as well as how acceptability and relevance are related to the use of specific skills (e.g., STAC strategies) students learn in the program.
Methods:
STAC-T, which included a 40-minute training and a 15-minute booster session, was completed by 249 middle school students recruited from six middle schools in rural, low-income communities in the United States. Students completed a post-training survey assessing program acceptability and relevance, whether or not they witnessed bullying post-training, and the use of the STAC strategies to intervene in bullying situations. Descriptive statistics were used to assess acceptability, relevance, and the use of STAC strategies. Linear regression analysis was used to assess the relationship of program acceptability and relevance to STAC strategy use.
Results:
The majority of students reported the program was acceptable (82.1% - 90.0%; n = 188-206) and relevant (78.6% - 83.0%; n = 180-190) for students at their school; 88.8% (n = 111) of the 50.2% (n = 125) of students who witnessed bullying post-training also reported the use of at least one STAC strategy to intervene when witnessing bullying. Program relevance was a significant predictor of post-training use of STAC strategies (p = .02). In contrast, program acceptability was not a significant predictor of post-training STAC strategy use (p = .69).
Conclusions:
This study provides support for the acceptability and relevance of STAC-T, as well as the effectiveness in promoting the use of the STAC strategies to intervene in bullying situations. Further, program relevance was related to STAC strategy use, highlighting the importance of assessing program relevance for specific student populations. Clinical Trial: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05572398
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