Associations between individual and collective efficacy beliefs and students' bystander behavior

Basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy as predictors of students' self-reported bystander behaviors over a school year: a growth curve analysis

Though school children tend to view peer victimization as morally wrong most do not to intervene on the victim's behalf and some instead choose to aid the victimizer. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate how students' defending and pro-aggressive bystander behaviors evolved over the course of one school year and their association to basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy. Three-hundred-fifty-three upper elementary school students (55% girls; 9.9-12.9 years of age) each completed self-report surveys at three points during one school year. Results from latent growth curve models showed that pro-aggressive bystander behavior remained stable over the year, whereas defending behavior decreased. Moreover, students who exhibited greater basic moral sensitivity were both less likely to be pro-aggressive and simultaneously more likely to defend. Students with defender self-efficacy were not only associated with more defending behavior at baseline but also were also less likely to decrease in defender behavior over time. Conversely, students reporting a higher degree of moral disengagement were linked to more pro-aggressive behavior, particularly when also reporting lower basic moral sensitivity. These short-term longitudinal results add important insight into the change in bystander behavior over time and how it relates to students' sense of morality. The results also highlight the practical necessity for schools to nurture students' sense of morality and prosocial behavior in their efforts to curb peer victimization.

A Path to Inclusiveness - Peer Support Groups as a Resource for Change

Being bullied is associated with anxiety, depression symptoms, and long-term negative health outcomes. The aim of this qualitative pilotstudy was to explore bullied children's experiences of support groups and how participating in a group affected the children. The sample consisted of 24 children aged 11-13 years. Four of them were bullied, while 20 participated in support groups. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted. The main theme identified was that support groups provide an opportunity for change and can help children to be included among peers. The changes were achieved through encouragement and support from peers. The children participating in the support groups reported a feeling of being selected. The groups provided fellowship, and an opportunity for change. Both getting support from and being part of a support group contributed to inclusion, strength, and valuable experiences. The findings suggest that a systemic approach to bullying is advantageous.

Testing the effectiveness of interactive training on sexual harassment and assault in field science

Fieldwork is a critical tool for scientific research, particularly in applied disciplines. Yet fieldwork is often unsafe, especially for members of historically marginalized groups and people whose presence in scientific spaces threatens traditional hierarchies of power, authority, and legitimacy. Research is needed to identify interventions that prevent sexual harassment and assault from occurring in the first place. We conducted a quasi-experiment assessing the impacts of a 90-min interactive training on field-based staff in a United States state government agency. We hypothesized that the knowledge-based interventions, social modeling, and mastery experiences included in the training would increase participants' sexual harassment and assault prevention knowledge, self-efficacy, behavioural intention, and behaviour after the training compared to a control group of their peers. Treatment-control and pre-post training survey data indicate that the training increased participants' sexual harassment and assault prevention knowledge and prevention self-efficacy, and, to a lesser extent, behavioural intention. These increases persisted several months after the training for knowledge and self-efficacy. While we did not detect differences in the effect of the training for different groups, interestingly, post-hoc tests indicated that women and members of underrepresented racial groups generally scored lower compared to male and white respondents, suggesting that these groups self-assess their own capabilities differently. Finally, participants' likelihood to report incidents increased after the training but institutional reports remained low, emphasizing the importance of efforts to transform reporting systems and develop better methods to measure bystander actions. These results support the utility of a peer-led interactive intervention for improving workplace culture and safety in scientific fieldwork settings. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: "The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on August 24, 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21770165 .

School bullying and self-efficacy in adolescence: A meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

Given that literature has examined the relation between school bullying and self-efficacy, findings have been mixed. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify whether school bullying is associated with adolescents' self-efficacy, a key component of social information processing essential for the evaluation of potential behavioral responses. We further examined moderators associated with heterogeneity in the above relation, including participant roles, types of school bullying, types of self-efficacy, and demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, and cultural background).

METHOD

This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Statement for searching, identifying, and screening eligible articles. A total of 53 articles (N = 71,661; Mage  = 12.69 years) were included (50 in English and 3 in Chinese). Articles were coded by two graduate-level coders independently with a high inter-rater reliability (97.12%).

RESULTS

The results showed that (1) school bullying was negatively associated with self-efficacy (r = -.07, p < .001) among adolescents, and (2) the above relation varied by participant role (e.g., bullies, victims, bully-victims, and defenders), types of school bullying (e.g., traditional bullying, cyberbullying, and both), and types of self-efficacy (e.g., general and domain-specific self-efficacy).

FINDINGS

The findings highlight that school bullying is associated with disruptive cognitive processing in adolescence, low self-efficacy in particular, and the heterogeneity should be considered to fully understand the association between school bullying and self-efficacy among adolescents.

Effects of the KiVa anti-bullying program on defending behavior: Investigating individual-level mechanisms of change

Given that defending victimized peers might help discourage bullying behavior and prevent its harmful consequences, various anti-bullying programs have attempted to increase defending behavior among participating children. However, the cognitions that underlie the effectiveness of interventions in increasing defending remain unknown. Data for this randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the KiVa anti-bullying program were collected in Finnish primary schools at baseline, after 5 months of implementation, and after 9 months of implementation and were used to examine the possible mediating role of seven psychological factors (empathy for the victim, feelings of responsibility to intervene, self-efficacy for defending, negative attitudes towards victims, and outcome expectations that defending would decrease or stop the bullying, be beneficial for one's status, and not increase one's risk of being victimized). Analyses conducted on a sample of 5731 children (baseline M_age = 11 years; 51% girls) revealed that the positive effects of KiVa on defending behavior after 9 months of implementation could partly be explained by the positive effects of the program on two factors (i.e., feelings of responsibility to intervene and expectations that the defending would make the bullying decrease or stop) after 5 months of implementation. This study provides information regarding the individual-level factors that anti-bullying interventions can target to successfully promote defending of victimized peers in primary schools.

Witnessing cyberbullying and suicidal ideation among middle school students

Suicide is a significant public health concern school-aged youth. Although a growing body of literature has documented the association between cyberbullying and suicidal ideation, and the mediating effect of internalizing symptoms, there is no research to date examining the impact of witnessing cyberbullying and suicidal ideation. To address this gap, we conducted a cross-sectional study with middle school students (N = 130). Students completed questionnaires assessing witnessing cyberbullying, witnessing school bullying, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. We used structural equation modeling to test a mediational model in which we hypothesized internalizing symptoms would mediate the unique relationship between witnessing cyberbullying and suicidal ideation (i.e., controlling for witnessing school bullying). Results supported the mediational model, indicating the frequency of witnessing cyberbullying was positively related to internalizing symptoms, which in turn were related to higher levels of suicidal ideation. Findings suggest the importance of providing programs to support middle school students who witness cyberbullying to reduce the mental health risks (i.e., internalizing symptoms and suicidal ideation) associated with being a cyberbullying bystander.

Associations Between Classroom Climate, Empathy, Self-Efficacy, and Countering Hate Speech Among Adolescents: A Multilevel Mediation Analysis

Although hate speech is widely recognized as an online phenomenon, very few studies have investigated hate speech among adolescents in offline settings (e.g., schools). At the same time, not much is known about countering hate speech (counterspeech) among adolescents and which factors are associated with it. To this end, the present study used the socio-ecological framework to investigate the direct and indirect links among one contextual factor (i.e., classroom climate) and two intrapersonal factors (i.e., empathy for victims of hate speech, self-efficacy regarding intervention in hate speech) to understand counterspeech among adolescents. The sample is based on self-reports of 3,225 students in Grades 7 to 9 (51.7% self-identified as female) from 36 schools in Germany and Switzerland. Self-report questionnaires were administered to measure classroom climate, empathy, self-efficacy, and counterspeech. After controlling for adolescents' grade, gender, immigrant background, and socioeconomic status (SES), the 2-(1-1)-1 multilevel mediation analysis showed that classroom climate (L2), empathy for victims of hate speech (L1), and self-efficacy toward intervention in hate speech (L1) had a positive effect on countering hate speech (L1). Classroom climate (L2) was also positively linked to empathy for victims of hate speech (L1), and self-efficacy toward intervention in hate speech (L1). Furthermore, classroom climate (L2) was indirectly associated with countering hate speech (L1) via greater empathy (L1) and self-efficacy (L1). The findings highlight the need to focus on contextual and intrapersonal factors when trying to facilitate adolescents' willingness to face hate speech with civic courage and proactively engage against it.

Effects of the Prevention Program "HateLess. Together against Hatred" on Adolescents' Empathy, Self-efficacy, and Countering Hate Speech

Currently, there is a lack of empirically evaluated prevention programs targeting hate speech among adolescents. This is problematic because hate speech jeopardizes adolescents' well-being and social integration. To this end, this study aims to evaluate the short-term effects of the newly developed anti-hate speech prevention program, "HateLess. Together against Hatred", on adolescents' empathy, self-efficacy, and counter-speech. Eight hundred and twenty adolescents between 12 and 16 (M = 13.27, SD = 1.04) from 11 German schools participated in this study. More specifically, 567 adolescents participated in the one-week prevention program, and 253 participants were assigned to the control group. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that HateLess was successful, as there was a significant increase in empathy, self-efficacy, and counter-speech in the intervention group from the pretest (T1) to the posttest (T2) one month after the intervention. In contrast, no changes were found among adolescents in the control group. A multilevel mediation model revealed that the effect of being a member of the intervention group on counter-speech was partially mediated via empathy and self-efficacy. The findings indicate that HateLess is an effective, cost-efficient approach to enhance adolescents' counter-speech directly and indirectly by altering the skills they need to become informed citizens in democratic societies.

Evaluating Psychometric Properties of the New Teachers' Perceptions of Collective Efficacy to Handle Bullying Scale (TCEB)

Collective efficacy is a promising theoretical construct that has been used to explain bullying rates in school. The development of school collective efficacy scales has increased in bullying research in recent years; however, gaps remain in measuring collective efficacy to handle bullying. This research assessed the psychometric properties of a new scale to evaluate collective efficacy against bullying. This first-order one-dimensional scale is called the teachers’ perceptions of collective efficacy to handle bullying (TCEB) scale. A sample of 804 Mexican primary teachers completed questionnaires. The sample was randomly split into two subsamples for calibration (n = 402) and cross-validation analysis (n = 402). The factor structure was supported by confirmatory factorial analysis. Measurement equivalence was confirmed by gender. The latent means differences showed no statistically significant differences by teachers’ gender. The TCEB correlation with school environment factors (e.g., principal support, school climate, and bullying) confirms the scale’s discriminant and concurrent validity. Our findings suggest that TCEB is a suitable instrument to assess teachers’ perceptions of collective efficacy to handle bullying, a construct that has proved to help predict a positive whole-school context and student bullying involvement.