Children's intervention strategies in situations of victimization by bullying: social cognitions of outsiders versus defenders

Individual and contextual-level predictors of progression in the bystander intervention model

The situational model of bystander behavior is a validated 5-step process for understanding intervention in bullying and sexual harassment, yet the individual-level and contextual-level factors that facilitate the progression from one step to the next are not well understood. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether individual characteristics (social-emotional skills, affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and personal attitudes toward bullying and sexual harassment) and contextual-level factors (school climate and perceived peer attitudes toward bullying and sexual harassment) explained the association between subsequent steps of the bystander intervention model. A sample of 788 high school students completed several validated measures of these constructs. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that each step significantly and positively predicted the next step, and the addition of a direct path from accepting responsibility to helping improved model fit. The mediational model indicated that individual-level characteristics had significant direct effects on interpreting bullying and sexual harassment as problems, accepting responsibility, and helping, and indirect effects from noticing the bullying and sexual harassment to all subsequent steps except knowing. In contrast, contextual-level effects contributed to accepting responsibility in an inverse direction.

The social contexts of behaviors and relationships: The relation of classroom and cyber victimization to number of classroom and cyber friends

Behaviors and relationships exist within a variety of social contexts. More specifically for the current research, victimization and friendships occur in classrooms and, increasingly, in online virtual contexts. The current research examined how the number of classroom friends and number of cyber friends related to the extent of classroom victimization and extent of cyber victimization. Research has demonstrated the importance of face-to-face friendships in relation to being a victim; much less is known about the role of cyber friends in relation to being a cyber victim or how these relationships may play a role in cross-context victimization. Participants were 350 children from Grades 3 through 5 (188 girls and 162 boys). Children indicated classroom friends on a classroom roster, reported the number of their cyber friends, and indicated the extent of their cyber victimization. Peers nominated classmates for classroom victimization behaviors. A path analysis revealed that number of classroom friends was negatively associated with both extent of classroom victimization and extent of cyber victimization. Number of cyber friends was positively associated with extent of cyber victimization and was negatively related to extent of classroom victimization. Discussion of results includes the construction, use, and adaptation of social skills within and between social contexts.

Different Ways to Defend Victims of Bullying: Defending Profiles and Their Associations with Adolescents' Victimization Experiences and Depressive Symptoms

Adolescents use various strategies to help their victimized peers during bullying episodes. However, prior research has primarily adopted a variable-centered approach that examines the effect of each defending strategies separately and does not address whether there were different types of defenders who exhibit specific combinations of defending strategies and how these profiles related to youth's adjustment outcomes. Using latent profile analysis, this study identified defending profiles among a sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 1618, Mage = 13.81, SDage = 0.94, 42% girls) and examined whether these profiles differ on victimization experiences and depressive symptoms. The results yielded four defending profiles: nonaggressive defenders (15%), aggressive defenders (7%), average defenders (54%), and infrequent defenders (24%). Aggressive defenders and infrequent defenders exhibited the highest levels of self-reported victimization and depressive symptoms, whereas nonaggressive defenders demonstrated the lowest. There were no statistical profile differences in peer-reported victimization. Findings suggest that investigating the heterogeneity of youth using defending strategies is important for understanding whether defending actually puts youth at increased risk for negative adjustment.

When do bystanders get help from teachers or friends? Age and group membership matter when indirectly challenging social exclusion

We examined developmental changes in British children’s (8- to 10-year-olds) and adolescents’ (13- to 15-year-olds, N = 340; Female N = 171, 50.3%) indirect bystander reactions (i.e., judgments about whether to get help and from whom when witnessing social exclusion) and their social-moral reasoning regarding their reactions to social exclusion. We also explored, for the first time, how the group membership of the excluder and victim affect participants’ reactions. Participants read a hypothetical scenario in which they witnessed a peer being excluded from a school club by another peer. We manipulated the group membership of the victim (either British or an immigrant) and the group membership of the excluder (either British or an immigrant). Participants’ likelihood of indirect bystander reactions decreased from childhood into adolescence. Children were more likely to get help from a teacher or an adult than getting help from a friend, whereas adolescents were more likely to get help from a friend than getting help from a teacher or an adult. For both indirect bystander reactions, children justified their likelihood of responding by referring to their trust in their teachers and friends. Adolescents were more likely to refer to group loyalty and dynamics, and psychological reasons. The findings support and extend the Social Reasoning Developmental (SRD) approach by showing the importance of group processes with age in shaping children’s judgments about how to respond indirectly by asking for help from others, when they are bystanders in a situation that involves exclusion. The findings have practical implications for combating social exclusion and promoting prosocial bystander behavior in schools.

Socio-Cognitive Processes and Peer-Network Influences in Defending and Bystanding

Peers are critical to defending and bystanding during episodes of bullying. This study investigates the extent to which friends can shape defending and bystanding as well as social cognitions associated with these two behaviors (i.e., perceptions of self-efficacy and moral distress). The study sample consisted of n = 1354 early and middle adolescents (7th‒10th grade; 81.4% Italian; 51.3% boys) in northern Italy. Employing a longitudinal social network analytic approach, using stochastic actor-oriented modeling, this study found that adolescents become more similar or stay similar to their friends in both behaviors and perceptions, with no clear indication that students select friends based on similar levels of behaviors or perceptions. The findings illustrate how defending and bystanding behaviors and related social cognitions are developed within friend (peer) networks.

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.

HEXACO personality correlates of adolescents' involvement in bullying situations

Adolescents' involvement in bullying situations is—at least partially—personality trait‐activated. Although some studies investigated personality correlates of bullying and being victimized, little is known about personality correlates of bystander responses (i.e., reinforcing, outsider behavior, indirect defending, and direct defending). The present study investigated whether Dutch adolescents' self‐reported HEXACO personality traits could explain their peer‐reported involvement in bullying (N = 552; M_age = 13.4 years, SD = 0.8 years). The results show that bullying was negatively related to honesty‐humility, emotionality, agreeableness (for boys specifically), and openness, whereas reinforcing was only negatively related to honesty‐humility and openness. Conversely, direct defending and outsider behavior were positively related to honesty‐humility, emotionality, and openness, whereas indirect defending was only positively related to emotionality and openness. Furthermore, reinforcing was positively related to extraversion (for boys only), whereas outsider behavior was negatively related extraversion and positively to conscientiousness. Finally, being victimized was positively related to emotionality and negatively to extraversion. These findings contribute to our understanding of the heterogeneity in adolescents' involvement in bullying and fit the view of bullying and defending as strategic and goal‐directed behavior. Implications for bullying prevention programs are discussed.

"A Person I Cared About Was Involved": Exploring Bystander Motivation to Help in Incidents of Potential Sexual Assault and Dating Violence

The purpose of the present study was to examine what motivates college students to put themselves in harm's way and help their peers in risky situations involving sexual assault and dating violence. College students reported on the frequency of witnessing a wide range of potentially dangerous incidents, whether or not they intervened, why they chose to intervene, what their relationship was to the victim, and reactions to their intervention. A sample of 182 (59.5% female) college students (M_age = 19.3 years) participated. We coded and analyzed narrative responses to the question regarding what influenced their decision to get involved. For female students, relationship to the victim, and, for males, the severity of the situation, were key motivational factors for bystander involvement. Some students reported positive feelings while others reported negative feelings directly related to their involvement. Tapping into the motivations underlying college students' helping behavior will be particularly informative for those designing and implementing bystander intervention programs on college campuses. A better understanding of bystander behavior will not only improve bystander intervention programs but it will also put students in the best position to make informed and responsible choices when faced with a difficult situation.

Experiences of adolescent witnesses to peer victimization: The bystander effect

Many anti-bullying programs now emphasize the role of bystanders - youth who witness peer victimization. Using a large sample of adolescents (aged 12-18) from the United Kingdom who completed an online survey, the present study examined the types of bystander interventions, their outcomes, and reasons for intervening and not intervening. No significant group differences by any demographic group were found in intervening or not. Results showed that those who had a negative affective reaction when they witnessed bullying were more likely to intervene. Two intervening behaviors (telling the bully to stop and telling an adult) were the strongest predictors of positive results. The most frequently selected reason for not intervening was not knowing what to do, and for intervening, having prosocial and altruistic motives was most common. These and other results are discussed for theoretical and practical implications.

Dimensions of empathy and bystander intervention in bullying in elementary school

The current study investigated associations among cognitive empathy, affective empathy, internalizing problems, and the five steps of the bystander intervention model (notice bullying events, interpret as an event requiring intervention, accept responsibility for intervening, know how to intervene, and act). Participants included 336 fourth and fifth grade students (58.9% boys) at a school in the Midwest region of the United States. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that greater cognitive empathy was related to noticing bullying events, accepting responsibility to intervene, and knowing how to intervene. Affective empathy was significantly related to the actual act of intervention. Further, significant interactions revealed that affective empathy was positively associated with interpreting bullying as an event that required intervention at low and moderate levels of internalizing problems, but not at high levels of internalizing problems. Overall these findings underscore the need to examine the decision to intervene as the culmination of a series of steps as outlined in the bystander intervention model, with each step potentially influenced by a unique set of precursors.

Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents' Bullying-Related Indirect Defending, Outsider Behavior, and Peer-Group Status

During adolescence, youth become more likely to avoid involvement in witnessed bullying and less likely to support victims. It is unknown whether-and how-these bystander behaviors (i.e., outsider behavior and indirect defending) are associated with adolescents' peer-group status (i.e., popularity and social acceptance) over time. Cross-lagged path modeling was used to examine these longitudinal associations in a sample of 313 Dutch adolescents (M_age-T1  = 10.3 years). The results showed that status longitudinally predicted behavior, rather than that behavior predicted status. Specifically, unpopularity predicted outsider behavior and social acceptance predicted indirect defending. These findings suggest that a positive peer-group status can trigger adolescents' provictim stance. However, adolescents may also strategically avoid involvement in witnessed bullying to keep a low social profile.

Classroom bullying norms and peer status: Effects on victim-oriented and bully-oriented defending

Defending a victimized peer is a socially risky behavior that may require high peer status and may depend on how popular or disliked bullies are in the classroom (i.e., within-classroom correlations between bullying and status). Past research has investigated defending as a unidimensional construct, though it can involve confronting the bully (bully-oriented defending) or supporting the victim (victim-oriented defending). This study used multilevel modeling to examine the effects of individual peer status, gender, and bullying as well as two indicators of classroom norms—the bullying-popularity norm and the bullying-rejection norm—on both types of defending. Our sample included 1,460 Dutch adolescents (50% girls; M age 11 years) from 59 classrooms in 50 schools. Likability and popularity were positively associated with both types of defending. Being female and lower in bullying was associated with victim-oriented defending, whereas being male and higher in bullying was associated with bully-oriented defending. In classrooms where bullies were more rejected, both types of defending were more prevalent, and the positive associations of likability and popularity with victim-oriented defending were stronger. The positive effect of the bullying-rejection norm on victim-oriented defending was stronger for girls. Moreover, the effect of popularity on bully-oriented defending was stronger in classrooms where bullies were less popular.

How Does Guilt, Influence and Attitudes Effect the Role We Play in Bullying? The Self-Perception Measure

Variations in perceived feelings of guilt, influence, and attitudes can alter a person's behavior. The following article focused on the development and evaluation of a measure that explored how these self-perceptions affect the behaviour of the various participant roles involved in bullying situations. The participant roles explored included the bully, assistant, reinforcer, victim, defender, and outsider. The initial measure started with 30-items; 10-items for each measure (guilt, influence, and attitudes). The principal component analysis helped reduced the total number of items to 15 with guilt, influence, and attitudes all broken up into two components. Internal guilt measured the respondent's guilt based on their own actions, external guilt measured the level of guilt based on the presence of others. Internal influence measured the respondent's perceived influence on others and external influence measured the influence of others on the respondent's role. Internal attitudes measured a person's attitudes towards bullying and external attitudes measured a person's perceived disassociation between their attitudes and their role. The results showed acceptable to good reliability on all measures except internal influence. Future researchers exploring participant roles associated with bullying can use this measure to better understand the motives behind specific behaviors.

Differences in adolescents' motivations for indirect, direct, and hybrid peer defending

Adolescents' defending of peers who are being bullied-or peer defending-was recently found to be a heterogeneous behavioral construct. The present study investigated individual differences in adolescents' motivations for executing these indirect, direct, and hybrid defending behaviors. In line with the literature on bullying as goal-directed strategic behavior, we adopted a social evolution theory framework to investigate whether these peer-defending behaviors could qualify as goal-directed strategic prosocial behaviors. A sample of 549 Dutch adolescents (49.4% boys; M age = 12.5 years, SD = 0.6 years) participated in this study. Their peer reported defending behaviors (including bullying behavior as a control variable) and the following behavioral motivations were assessed: (a) agentic and communal goals (self-report), (b) prosocial and coercive social strategies (peer report), and (c) altruistic and egocentric motivations for prosocial behavior (self-report). The outcomes of hierarchical linear regression analyses suggest that adolescents' motivations for executing the different subtypes of peer defending partially overlap but are also different. While indirect defending was fostered by genuine concerns for victims' well-being, direct defending was more motivated by personal gains. Hybrid defending combined favorable aspects of both indirect and direct defending as a goal-directed, strategic, and altruistically motivated prosocial behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.

What Antibullying Program Designs Motivate Student Intervention in Grades 5 to 8?

Educators detect and intervene in a small proportion of bullying incidents. Although students are present when many bullying episodes occur, they are often reluctant to intervene. This study explored attributes of antibullying (AB) programs influencing the decision to intervene. Grade 5, 6, 7, and 8 students (N = 2,033) completed a discrete choice experiment examining the influence of 11 AB program attributes on the decision to intervene. Multilevel analysis revealed 6 latent classes. The Intensive Programming class (28.7%) thought students would intervene in schools with daily AB activities, 8 playground supervisors, mandatory reporting, and suspensions for perpetrators. A Minimal Programming class (10.3%), in contrast, thought monthly AB activities, 4 playground supervisors, discretionary reporting, and consequences limited to talking with teachers would motivate intervention. Membership in this class was linked to Grade 8, higher dispositional reactance, more reactance behavior, and more involvement as perpetrators. The remaining 4 classes were influenced by different combinations of these attributes. Students were more likely to intervene when isolated peers were included, other students intervened, and teachers responded quickly. Latent class analysis points to trade-offs in program design. Intensive programs that encourage intervention by students with little involvement as perpetrators may discourage intervention by those with greater involvement as perpetrators, high dispositional reactance, or more reactant behavior.

Investigation of the bystander effect in school bullying: Comparison of experiential, psychological and situational factors

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the ‘bystander effect’ known to occur in emergency situations is effective in bullying situations through examination of the individual experiences of 467 middle- and high-school students. While the bystander effect was not found to be valid in bullying situations, there were significant differences in factors influencing a bystander’s defending behavior in terms of the presence of other bystanders. In cases where bullying was witnessed in the presence of other bystanders, factors such as one’s previous experience as a perpetrator, anti-social behavior, level of harm, relationship to the victim and popularity had an effect on the defending behavior of bystanders. On the other hand, in the absence of other bystanders, one’s previous experience as a victim, level of empathy, and perceived control had an effect on the defending behavior of bystanders. The implications of these results for an effective intervention for school bullying in terms of bystanders are discussed.

Classroom relationship qualities and social-cognitive correlates of defending and passive bystanding in school bullying in Sweden: A multilevel analysis

Using the social-ecological and social cognitive theories as integrated guiding frameworks, the present study examined whether moral disengagement and defender self-efficacy at the individual level, and moral disengagement, quality of teacher-student relationships and quality of student-student relationships at the classroom level were associated with passive bystanding and defending in bullying situations. Participants were 900 Swedish students from 43 classrooms, ranging in age from 9 to 13years. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that passive reactions by bystanders were associated with greater moral disengagement and less defender self-efficacy. Defending, in turn, was associated with less moral disengagement and greater defender self-efficacy and classroom student-student relationship quality. Furthermore, students who scored high in moral disengagement were even less prone to defend victims when the classroom student-student relationship quality was low, but more prone to act as defenders when the classroom student-student relationship quality was high. In addition, the negative association between defender self-efficacy and passive bystanding was stronger both in classrooms with higher student-student relationship quality and in those with lower class moral disengagement. Implications for prevention are discussed.

Impact of Cyberprogram 2.0 on Different Types of School Violence and Aggressiveness

Some antibullying interventions have shown positive outcomes with regard to reducing violence. The aim of the study was to experimentally assess the effects on school violence and aggressiveness of a program to prevent and reduce cyberbullying. The sample was comprised of a randomly selected sample of 176 adolescents (93 experimental, 83 control), aged 13–15 years. The study used a repeated measures pre-posttest design with a control group. Before and after the program, two assessment instruments were administered: the “Cuestionario de Violencia Escolar-Revisado” (CUVE-R [School Violence Questionnaire – Revised]; Álvarez-García et al., 2011) and the “Cuestionario de agresividad premeditada e impulsiva” (CAPI-A [Premeditated and Impulsive Aggressiveness Questionnaire]; Andreu, 2010). The intervention consisted of 19 one-hour sessions carried out during the school term. The program contains 25 activities with the following objectives: (1) to identify and conceptualize bullying/cyberbullying; (2) to analyze the consequences of bullying/cyberbullying, promoting participants’ capacity to report such actions when they are discovered; (3) to develop coping strategies to prevent and reduce bullying/cyberbullying; and (4) to achieve other transversal goals, such as developing positive variables (empathy, active listening, social skills, constructive conflict resolution, etc.). The pre-posttest ANCOVAs confirmed that the program stimulated a decrease in: (1) diverse types of school violence—teachers’ violence toward students (ridiculing or publicly humiliating students in front of the class, etc.); students’ physical violence (fights, blows, shoves… aimed at the victim, or at his or her property, etc.); students’ verbal violence (using offensive language, cruel, embarrassing, or insulting words… toward classmates and teachers); social exclusion (rejection or exclusion of a person or group, etc.), and violence through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT; violent behaviors by means of electronic instruments such as mobile phones and the Internet)—; and (2) premeditated and impulsive aggressiveness. Pre-posttest MANCOVA revealed differences between conditions with a medium effect size. This work contributes an efficacious intervention tool for the prevention and reduction of peer violence. The conclusions drawn from this study have interesting implications for educational and clinical intervention.

Brief report: Identifying defenders of peer victimization

Betweenness centrality quantifies the amount of network flow that a network member controls as hypothetical traffic passes between network members. Those with high betweenness centrality within the peer social network based on nominations of liking may be especially important connectors between individuals who do not like each other. This study tested the hypothesis that individuals' betweenness centrality would predict their defending of victimized peers. After controlling for popularity, perception of being liked, and defenders' victimization, betweenness centrality predicted defending. Those found to be connectors within the peer group were more likely to be those who defend peer victims. This investigation showed that analysis of betweenness centrality is a viable way to identify potential defenders in research and also those who could potentially act as mediators.

Choosing to be a defender or an outsider in a school bullying incident: Determining factors and the defending process

This study examined the determinants of students’ willingness to intervene in bullying incidents, as well as the process underlying students’ defending behaviors. The participants were 24 students (12 defenders and 12 outsiders) recruited from six secondary schools in southern Taiwan. The study used semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data and a grounded theory approach to analyse the data. The results showed that bystanders in bullying situations tended to assess the perceived severity of a bullying incident, personal responsibility, affective factors, victim characteristics, relationship with the victim, and other factors before committing to an intervention. This study found four possible phases of defending behavior: a) personal assessment affects a bystander’s decision to act as a defender or an outsider; b) a defender evaluates the severity of a situation and the relationship with the bully to determine strategies for defending; c) defenders who come forward to intervene are interrogated or threatened by bullies; and d) defenders then reassess whether to intervene again. The results of this study suggest that bystander intervention programs can encourage students’ personal responsibility, awareness of the severity of school bullying, improvement of interpersonal relationships, and self-efficacy to raise bystanders’ willingness to defend a victim.