Caregivers’ Advice and Children’s Bystander Behaviors During Bullying Incidents

Abstract

Many bullying prevention programs take a bystander approach, which encourages children to intervene when they are bystanders to bullying incidents. Little is known about how caregivers' advice to children might promote or undermine the positive bystander behaviors targeted by these programs. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to investigate relations between caregivers' advice and children's bystander behavior during bullying situations. Participants were 106 racially/ethnically diverse 4th- and 5th-grade students (M age = 10.5 years, SD = .71 years), their classmates, and their caregivers. During classroom visits, peers reported on children's bystander behaviors. During home visits, caregivers and children completed a coded interaction task in which caregivers advised children about how to respond to bullying situations at school. Results suggested that (a) bystander intervention was positively predicted by caregivers' advice to help/comfort the victim, (b) bystander passivity was positively predicted by caregivers' advice to not intervene and negatively predicted by caregivers' advice to help/comfort the victim, and (c) bystander reinforcement/assistance of the bully was positively predicted by caregivers' advice not to intervene and not to tell adults. Results support a link between caregivers' advice at home and children's corresponding behavior when they are bystanders to bullying situations at school. These results emphasize the importance of collaboration between families and schools to reduce school bullying. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Parental advice to preadolescent bystanders about how to intervene during bullying differs by form of bullying

“…It is well established that girls intervene in bullying situations more frequently than boys (Espelage, Green, & Polanin, ; Hawkins, Pepler, & Craig, ; O'Connell et al, ). This finding combined with the results of the study by Grassetti and colleagues suggesting that bystander children follow their parents' advice about how to respond to bullying (Grassetti et al, ) suggests that parents may suggest intervention during bullying more frequently to girls than boys. This hypothesis is consistent with evidence that parents implicitly and explicitly socialize the prosocial development of boys and girls differently (Mesman & Groeneveld, ); for example, parent encourage prosocial behaviors more frequently in infant girls than infant boys (Power & Parke, ).…”

“…It is surprising that little work has examined parental advice to bystander children, given that many bullying prevention programs are bystander‐oriented, parents play an important role in these programs, and advice‐giving is a common and salient way that parents socialize their children's peer behavior. One recent study demonstrated that children generally respond as bystanders to bullying in ways that their parents have advised them to respond (Grassetti et al, ). In that study, children were more likely to intervene when their parents advised intervention.…”

“…In the current study, we re‐analyzed an existing data set (Grassetti et al, ) to meet three goals. Our first goal was to assess the frequency by which parents provided different types of advice for how preadolescent bystanders should respond to bullying.…”

Preventing School Violence and Promoting School Safety: Contemporary Scholarship Advancing Science, Practice, and Policy

“…As education professionals increasingly recognize the importance of facilitating bystander orientation to stop bullying and prevent future instances of aggression (Grassetti et al, 2018), researchers have begun to examine predictors of bystanders' willingness to intervene (Jenkins & Nickerson, 2017. In "School Connectedness and Bystander Intervention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Exclusion and Privilege among African American Students, " Knox et al (2021) highlights the importance of recognizing that predictors of bystander intervention may look different in various groups of students.…”

Collaborating With Parents to Increase Proactive Bystander Messages

“…Within the home setting, parent teachings to their children of prosocial antibullying responses received from school resources can communicate a variety of options to decrease the frequency of bullying. Research has indicated that youth adopt from their parents recommended bystander interventions when at school (Grassetti et al, 2018). Consequently, greater correspondence on bystander responses from parents and school staff can increase student confidence in immediate and consistent intervention when victimization is experienced or observed.…”