Determinants of adolescents’ active defending and passive bystanding behavior in bullying

Abstract

The literature on participant roles in bullying lacks empirical studies that seek to explain what differentiates defenders from outsiders (or passive bystanders). The present study tested a conceptual model in which two personal characteristics of early adolescent students (empathy and perceived social self‐efficacy) were considered as possible determinants of their participant behavior in bullying episodes. A total of 294 Italian early adolescents (mean age=13.3 years, range: 12–14) participated in the study. The structural equation modeling showed that high levels of empathic responsiveness were positively associated with both active defending and passive bystanding behavior, as assessed through peer nominations. In contrast, high levels of social self‐efficacy were associated with helping behavior, whereas low levels of social self‐efficacy were associated with passive bystanding behavior. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for researchers and educational practitioners.

Bystander Intervention in Cyberbullying

“…Further, the design of the second study is more consistent with previous experimental research into both the diffusion of responsibility effect (e.g., Darley & Latané, 1968a) and bystander intervention during traditional bullying (e.g., Gini et al, 2008).…”

“…Similar to previous research examining the role of bystanders in bullying situations (e.g., Gini et al, 2008), respondents read a scenario which described an online bullying incident. Participants completed an online survey in which they were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions.…”

“…Additionally, a sense of personal responsibility for helping victims was positively related to actively defending a victim. Gender also plays a role in active defending or bystanding behavior, in that females were more likely to both actively defend and passively observe bullying episodes (Gini et al, 2008). Other research demonstrated that positive attitudes toward the victim was associated with greater helping behavior (Rigby & Johnson, 2006).…”

“…and use an experimental method to manipulate the number of bystanders, depersonalization, and relationship with the victim, similar to previous research on the bystander effect and cyberbullying (e.g., Gini et al, 2008). After the creation of five such scenarios, one was discarded because the incident was too broad, and one additional scenario was discarded because it related to homophobia, and participants' attitudes towards homosexuality likely would have been a confounding/complicating variable.…”

“…To date, the only studies to examine bystander intervention in bullying episodes have focused on traditional bullying behavior. Additionally, the limited research on bystander intervention in bullying episodes has focused on individual differences (Pozzoli & Gini, 2010), gender (Gini et al, 2008), attitudes toward the victims (Rigby & Johnson, 2006), social categorization processes and the likelihood of helping the in-group (Gini, 2006), and the effect of empathy and self-efficacy (Gini et al, 2007) as predictors of helping or offering support to a bullying victim.…”