Encouraging positive bystander responses to bias-based bullying in primary schools through a serious game approach: a non-randomized controlled evaluation of the 'GATE-BULL' program

Bias-based bullying is a serious public health issue, negatively impacting on the well-being of children with socially devalued identities or attributes. The aim of the GATE-BULL project was to develop and evaluate a serious game supplemented by a series of classroom-based lesson plans to encourage positive bystander responses in weight-, ethnicity-, and religion-based bullying situations. The program was a 4-week school-based intervention targeted at 9– 13-year-olds and tested using a quasi-experimental design. In total, 578 children from the Netherlands, Scotland and Greece were included in the analyses. The evaluation suggested that the GATE-BULL program improved the intention to intervene in weight-based bullying situations in Scotland and marginally contributes to a reduction in intergroup anxiety among majority group children with respect to Muslim children in the Netherlands. No positive effects were found in Greece. While the program showed limited evidence of effectiveness, several important lessons have been learned for future development of interventions targeting bias-based bullying.