Help From a Friend: Helicopter Parenting Predicts Empathy and Bystander Intervention

Abstract

Harassment toward others happens in many contexts with a myriad of negative impacts on victims, witnesses, and society. Although preventing harassment of others is ideal, it is also important to consider how bystanders may react in ways to defend the victim and reduce the harassment. Bystanders differ in their reactions to these events and the goal of this investigation is to better understand individual differences in college students’ reported tendency to defend victims of harassment. We proposed a mediation model where higher rates of helicopter parenting would predict lower empathic concern and greater personal distress. In turn, lower empathic concern and greater personal distress would predict lower likelihood of defending the victim. College students ( n = 305) completed self-report measures of helicopter parenting, empathic concern, personal distress, and bystander intervention to general harassment. Using the Hayes PROCESS program, we found the relation of helicopter parenting to bystander intervention was mediated by empathic concern, such that helicopter parenting predicted lower empathic concern, which predicted lower likelihood of intervening. Helicopter parenting predicted greater personal distress, but personal distress did not predict bystander intervention. In an exploratory analysis, we tested a moderated mediation model in which personal distress moderated the relation of empathic concern to bystander intervention. The moderated mediation model was statistically significant; for students with low to moderate personal distress, empathic concern predicted self-reported intervention. However, for students high in personal distress, empathic concern was not related to self-reported intervention. The current study explained a small amount of the variance in bystander intervention. These findings demonstrate the complex family and personal factors that may explain, to a small degree, individual differences in bystander intervention. Further studies should consider the complex contextual variables that may influence this relationship.

Antecedents of Empathic Capacity: Emotion Regulation Styles as Mediators between Controlling Versus Autonomy - Supportive Maternal Practices and Empathy

“…This study focused on college students' self-reports of their perceptions of parental practices and their own types of ER and peer reports on target participants' sympathy and personal distress. Like other studies in the field, our sample comprised community college students (Hayes & Turner, 2021;Kim & Rohner, 2003;Konrath et al, 2011;Schaffer et al, 2009). Students in a psychology course were offered extra credit in exchange for participation.…”

Overparenting, Loneliness, and Social Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

“…Previous research has consistently shown that overparenting is associated with negative outcomes in emerging adults (see Cui et al, 2022 for a review). These negative outcomes include poorer psychological well-being (e.g., depression, general anxiety, and stress, Hayes & Turner, 2021; Hong & Cui, 2020), more behavioral problems (e.g., problematic alcohol use and internet addiction; Cui et al, 2019; Love et al, 2022; McGinley & Davis, 2021), and high levels of academic difficulties (Fletcher et al, 2020; Howard et al, 2022; Love et al, 2022). In addition, a few studies have examined the relationship between overparenting and social outcomes.…”