The Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Counseling Program in Enhancing Emotional Intelligence and Reducing Cyberbullying Among Upper Elementary School Students in Jerusalem

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a counseling program based on mindfulness to develop emotional intelligence and reducing cyberbullying among upper elementary school students in Jerusalem. The study adopts an experimental approach using a quasi-experimental design with experimental and control groups. The study instruments were administered to a field sample consisting of 120 upper elementary school students to select participants for the experimental and control groups, comprising 26 male and female students who obtained the lowest scores on the emotional intelligence and cyberbullying scales. These participants were divided through matching based on their scores on both scales, equally distributed into two groups: one experimental and one control group, with 13 students in each group.The counseling program consists of 13 sessions implemented at a rate of two sessions per week, with each session lasting 45 minutes for the experimental group. Pre- and post-measurements were conducted for both groups, along with a follow-up measurement for the experimental group after eight weeks.The results show the effectiveness of the counseling program in improving emotional intelligence, where the experimental group recorded a mean of 4.04 compared to 2.34 for the control group, with a large effect size (η² = 0.757). The mean increased from 3.15 pre-intervention to 4.12 post-intervention with statistical significance (p <.05), and this improvement was sustained as no significant differences were found between post-intervention and follow-up measurements.The program also succeeds in reducing cyberbullying levels, where the experimental group's mean decreased to 1.13 compared to 2.62 for the control group, with a large effect size (.798), and 1.17 on the follow-up measurement, indicating the sustained effect of the counseling program in reducing cyberbullying among upper elementary school students in Jerusalem.The study concludes that the program achieved sustained improvement in emotional intelligence and reduction in cyberbullying, and recommends applying it to different societies and in different environments.