The Effectiveness of Role Playing Technique Group Counseling to Increase the Empathy of Bullying Perpetrators in Vocational School Students

Abstract

Bullying in schools is a serious problem that continues to increase, especially in the Vocational High School (SMK) environment. The root of the problem is low empathy for the perpetrator, which encourages the repetition of aggressive behavior. Role playing technique group counseling is considered to be able to foster empathy through direct experience playing the role of the victim. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of role playing technique group counseling in increasing the empathy of bullies through Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with the PRISMA 2020 protocol. Searches were conducted on Google Scholar, Garuda Portal, and SINTA, covering 2019–2024 publications. Of the 47 articles identified, 9 primary research articles met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed narratively. The results showed that 8 out of 9 articles (88.9%) proved that role playing techniques were effective in reducing bullying and/or increasing student empathy. A dose of at least 3 sessions has been proven to be a critical moderator of effectiveness. It was concluded that group counseling of role playing techniques is an effective intervention, but direct evidence in the context of vocational schools especially on empathy variables is still very limited.