"They Think that I Should Defend": Effects of Peer and Teacher Injunctive Norms on Defending Victimized Classmates in Early Adolescents

Personal Norms Predict Defending in Bullying: Mediating Role of Anticipated Pride and Guilt

Recent studies have shown that bystander intervention involves moral engagement. However, the underlying internal mechanism is still poorly understood. Drawing on the norm activation model (NAM), Study 1 (questionnaire; n = 502) and Study 2 (experiment; n = 144) were conducted to investigate the influence of personal norms on defending through the mediating factors of anticipated pride and anticipated guilt. After controlling for age and gender, Study 1 revealed a significant positive association between personal norms and defending. This relationship was mediated by both anticipated pride and guilt, highlighting their parallel roles in explaining the influence of personal norms on defending. Study 2 investigated using writing tasks to manipulate personal norms from participants. The results revealed that the priming group had significantly higher levels of anticipated pride, guilt, and defending than the control group. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 in testing the mediated path, enhancing the reliability of research findings. This study expands the scope of the application of NAM by examining the interplay between personal norms, anticipated pride, anticipated guilt, and defending, as well as exploring the implications of these findings for interventions against bullying. Moral education should focus not only on the responsibility and obligation of bystanders to intervene in bullying incidents but also on the need to assist students in forming a moral compass within themselves that guides them to defend victims through moral emotions actively.

Trajectories of defending behaviors: Longitudinal association with normative and social adjustment and self-perceived popularity

Defending the victim in bullying situations is a moral behavior that has received increasing attention in the literature. However, important questions about the development and maintenance of defending behaviors remain unanswered. The present study adopted a longitudinal design with two main goals: (a) identifying trajectories of change in individuals' defending behavior over time and (b) describing and comparing the initial levels and dynamics of change in normative and social adjustment and self-perceived popularity between the different defending trajectories. A total of 3303 students (49.8% girls; Wave 1 Mage = 12.61 years; SD = 1.47) participated in the study. Data were collected in four waves with self-report questionnaires. Using growth mixture modeling, we found four defending trajectories (84% stable-high, 5% decrease, 4% increase, and 7% stable-low). Growth mixture model multigroup and comparative analyses found that adolescents in the stable-high defending group exhibited the highest initial levels of normative adjustment (Mintercept = 5.47), social adjustment (Mintercept = 5.48), and self-perceived popularity (Mintercept = 5). Adolescents in the decrease defending group tended to reduce their normative adjustment over time (Mslope = -0.09), whereas the increase defending group increased their social adjustment (Mslope = 0.18) and self-perceived popularity (Mslope = -0.04). The stable-low defending group showed low and stable levels of normative adjustment (Mintercept = 5.01), social adjustment (Mintercept = 5.03), and self-perceived popularity (Mintercept = 4.4). These results indicate a strong association between normative and social adjustment and self-perceived popularity and involvement in defending behaviors. Bullying prevention programs could improve by adding a stronger focus on the development of classroom dynamics that promote adjusted behaviors and class-group cohesion.

Development and Validation of the Adolescent Defending Behaviors Questionnaire Among Chinese Early Adolescents

This study aimed to clarify the multidimensionality of defending by developing and validating the Adolescent Defending Behaviors Questionnaire (ADBQ) in a sample of Chinese adolescents. Results of Study 1 (N = 824, Mage = 11.25) indicated that a five-factor model, comprising (a) assertive defending, (b) aggressive defending, (c) comforting victims, (d) reporting to authority, and (e) tactical defending, yielded a good fit to the data. Study 2 (N = 1,086, Mage = 11.18) established ADBQ's reliability (α = .78-.93) and construct validity: the five defending dimensions were differentially associated with cognitive and affective empathy, aggression, sociability, peer preference, and victimization. Together, the results suggest that the ADBQ is a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument for assessing the multidimensionality of defending.

Defending or Remaining Passive as a Bystander of School Bullying in Sweden: The Role of Moral Disengagement and Antibullying Class Norms

The overall aim of the present study was to examine whether moral disengagement and perceptions of antibullying class norms at individual level and at class level were associated with defending and passive bystanding in school bullying among school-age children. More specifically, we investigated the extent to which moral disengagement would contribute to explain defending and passive bystanding, after controlling for sex and perceptions of antibullying class norms at individual level and at class level. A total of 789 Swedish students (aged 10-14) from 40 middle school classes filled out a self-report survey. The findings revealed that girls and students who were less prone to morally disengage, and who perceived that their classmates endorsed more antibullying norms, were more likely to defend victimized peers. Students who were more inclined to morally disengage and perceive that classmates do not condemn bullying were more likely to act as passive bystanders. In addition, classes with higher levels of antibullying class norms were more likely to show higher rates of defending and lower rates of passive bystanding compared to the other classes. The findings suggest that schools and teachers need to develop educational strategies, methods, and efforts designed to make students aware of moral disengagement and to reduce their likelihood of morally disengaging in bullying situations. The present findings also point to the importance of teachers establishing class rules against bullying together with the students.

The relation between defending, (dis)liking, and the classroom bullying norm: A cross-sectional social network approach in late childhood

This study investigates the extent to which defending victims of bullying depends on liking and disliking and its relation with the classroom bullying norm (descriptive and popularity) in a sample of 1,272 students (50.8% boys) in 48 fifth-grade classrooms. Social network analysis with bivariate exponential random graph modelings showed that children are more likely to defend victims whom they like, who like them, and who are liked by the same classmates than victims who they dislike, who dislike them, and with whom they share antipathies by and to the same classmates. In addition, the analysis showed that bullying norms had an inconclusive effect on the relation between defending and (dis)liking.

An experimental study of teachers' evaluations regarding peer exclusion in the classroom

BACKGROUND

While research has documented negative social and academic consequences that occur when students experience peer exclusion, few studies have been conducted to investigate teachers' evaluations of peer exclusion.

AIMS

This study investigated whether ethnic and gender biases enter teachers' evaluations of classroom peer exclusion that met criteria for bullying.

SAMPLE

Teachers (N = 740; 77% female) of early and middle adolescents participated in the study. Participants were recruited from 118 elementary and secondary schools across the Czech Republic.

METHODS

Using a between-subjects design, teachers evaluated a scenario of classroom peer exclusion initiated by majority ethnic (Czech) students. The scenarios varied contextual characteristics: target's ethnicity (majority Czech vs. minority Arab), target's gender, and excluders' gender.

RESULTS

Analyses revealed several subtle contextual effects. Although teachers viewed exclusion as having a more negative impact for the fair treatment of Arab targets than for Czech targets, their reasoning about the wrongfulness of such exclusion was less focused on the moral concerns about fairness for Arab than for Czech targets. In contrast to girl targets, teachers were less concerned about the harmful impact on exclusion for boy targets when considering intervention. Excluders' gender had significant interactions with the target's gender on reasoning about wrongfulness of exclusion and the target's ethnicity for viewing exclusion as impairing the target's academic engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of subtle ethnic and gender biases underscore the need for research on teacher perspectives on peer exclusion and for training teachers how to address peer exclusion in the classroom across various contexts.

Predicting the development of pro-bullying bystander behavior: A short-term longitudinal analysis

Pro-bullying bystander behavior is a key socio-contextual factor underlying the perpetuation of bullying, yet investigators know relatively little as to what contributes to its development. The current study uses a short-term longitudinal design to identify child characteristics and relationship qualities that predict pro-bullying bystander behavior over the course of one school year. Participants were 484 children (239 girls; Mage = 10.25 years). Children completed self-report measures of pro-bullying bystander behavior, empathy, moral disengagement, and perceived norms for defending, and peer-report measures of peer victimization and popularity. Main effects of fall empathy and moral disengagement emerged in the prediction of spring pro-bullying bystander behavior, although the latter just for boys. At low levels of perceived norms for defending, high levels of popularity and, for girls, high levels of peer victimization predicted heightened pro-bullying bystander behavior. Thus, anti-bullying efforts may benefit from targeting these social-cognitive and relational processes predictive of pro-bullying bystander behavior and fostering group norms that mitigate these risks.

Norms and Attitudes about Being an Active Bystander: Support for Telling Adults about Seeing Knives or Guns at School among Greater London Youth

A detailed understanding of the factors associated with support among youth for reporting a knife or gun at school to an adult is essential to inform violence prevention initiatives. However, no studies have empirically assessed attitudes about support for reporting among secondary school students in Greater London nor perceived norms about such support among peers. Thus, this study explores whether students misperceive peer norms about support for telling adults about seeing weapons at school. Anonymous surveys were completed by 7401 youth (52% female; 43% White; mean age 11.8 years) in school years 4-11 in 45 school cohorts in a greater London borough between 2007 and 2012. Students reported both personal support about reporting weapons to several categories of adults and whether they perceived most other students at their school to support reporting weapons to adults in each category. Most students (64-78% on average) in most cohorts personally thought that students should report seeing a weapon at school to head teachers, police/security guard, teachers/counselors, and parent/other adult relatives. However, 34-44% of students erroneously thought that the majority of their peers did not support reporting to these adults. Perceived norms predicted personal support for reporting, adjusting for the prevalence of actual support at one's school and other factors. Pervasive norm misperceptions about reporting may contribute to a less safe environment.

New Approaches to Defender and Outsider Roles in School Bullying

Using latent profile analysis, this study refined the traditional defender and outsider roles in bullying research and examined intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors associated with subtypes of roles. Participants were 1,373 adolescents (40% girls, M_age : 14 years) from 54 classrooms in six middle schools. The results revealed that defenders could be classified as either assertive or comforting and that outsiders could be classified as either sympathetic or indifferent. These different profiles were explained by affective empathy, antibullying attitudes, self-efficacy, and responsibility to intervene at the intrapersonal level; popularity and peer preference at the interpersonal level; and peers' antibullying attitudes and expectations at the contextual level. Implications for studying participant roles in bullying research and for advancing antibullying interventions were discussed.