Co-creating Short Video Films to Raise Elementary School Students’ Awareness of Bullying

Bullying has attracted worldwide research interest mainly due to its negative effects on the children involved. In this study, students participated in creating and performing their own theatre pieces, three short video films about body shaming, racial discrimination, and cyberbullying. The purpose of the study was to explore gender differences in bullying and victimization among 20 preadolescent 6th-grade students, identify possible changes in behaviour after the film co-creating process, and adapted strategies for addressing bullying. This study explored the hypothesis that children who were actively involved in this play-creating process, would report less bullying and victimization behaviour. Results revealed that boys and girls reported more bullying and victimization behaviour before their participation and less afterwards. Girls also tended to use strategies such as assertiveness or withdrawal. These findings suggest that anti-bullying programs may alter students’ behaviour and should be taken into account by education professionals, researchers, and policymakers.