5A.002 Call for action to address school bullying in the UAE: scoping review

Background Schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) witnessed an increase in bullying prevalence (20% - 2005; 27% - 2016). National Bullying Prevention Strategy was established in 2018 with different ministries starting bullying prevention interventions. We aimed to map anti-bullying interventions for school children in the UAE. Methods Studies addressing anti-bullying interventions in the UAE from 2010–2019 were included. We systematically searched six electronic databases (EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, Eric and Google Scholar). We also included grey literature and information from other meta-resources. Each anti-bullying intervention was mapped using its distribution across key sectors, level of public health practice and type of organization. Results Among 1081 identified papers, only 2 were included in the study. Both papers were published in 2019 and used qualitative methods. From organization websites search, we found 22 multi-level interventions presented on the three levels of public health practice across the different sectors and different target stakeholders. Education and Justice’s sectors contributed the most, 9 and 5 interventions respectively. The majority of interventions (8) were from federal level, followed by private level (6) interventions. Funding resources were mostly from govermntal organization with 59% of all interventions and 50% of all were based on awareness approach. A total of 4 interventions were designed to address cyberbullying. A muli-sectoral collaboration was used to design 3 of the founded interventions. Conclusion UAE is building capacity for bullying prevention. A framework to understand core knowledge base and theoretical models is being used to guide the design, delivery and outcomes evaluation is needed. Acknowledgments This study was supported by CMHS research grant 31M422