Examining the effectiveness of the teasing and bullying intervention programme for stuttering: A sample from Kocaeli

Teasing and Bullying: Unacceptable Behaviour (TAB) is a classroom-based intervention program developed in Canada for students in grades 4 to 6. The present study aimed to adapt the TAB program to the Turkish cultural context and to examine its effects on the peer attitudes toward stuttering, empathy levels, and coping-with-bullying skills of Turkish-speaking students without stuttering in grades 4 to 6. The participants of the study consisted of 671 students (Boys = 341, Girls = 330) attending grades 4, 5, and 6 in four public schools in Kocaeli during the 2024–2025 academic year. The experimental group included 311 participants, while the control group included 360 participants. Data were collected using the Peer Attitudes Toward Children Who Stutter Scale – Turkish Version (PATCS-TR), the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents, the Bullying Tendency Scale, and the Coping with Bullying Scale. Before the intervention, both groups completed the pre-tests. The TAB intervention was then implemented in the experimental groups once a week (one class hour + one break time) for six consecutive weeks. Following the intervention, the same measurements were repeated for both groups at the 1st and 6th months in order to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of the program. The findings revealed that the TAB program significantly improved peer attitudes toward children who stutter, increased empathy levels, and enhanced coping-with-bullying skills. Keywords: Classroom-based intervention, Coping with bullying, Peer attitudes, Peer bullying, Stuttering.