Standing up to bullying: A social ecological review of peer defending in offline and online contexts

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

“…The present findings fall in line with some of the more consistent previous findings in the literature about peer defending. At the individual level, peer defending is most consistently found to be a morality‐based response of empathic individuals (e.g., Gini et al, ; Thornberg & Jungert, ; for a review see Lambe et al, ). The present findings suggest that indirect—rather than direct—defending contributes to this aspect of peer defending.…”

“…Moreover, the most consistent peer‐level predictors of peer defending seem to be due to direct defending. That is, peer defending is quite consistently associated with peer‐group status (i.e., popularity and specifically social preference; e.g., Pronk et al, ; van der Ploeg et al, ; for a review see Lambe et al, ). In the present study, direct—unlike indirect—defending was found to be goal‐directed behaviors towards these types of social goals (i.e., agency and communion).…”

“…While not a primary focus of this study, gender differences cannot be ignored within the context of peer defending. Gender differences in defending favoring girls are quite consistently reported (Lambe et al, ). Girls were also found to prefer indirect and hybrid defending specifically, while boys seem to prefer direct defending (Pronk et al, ; Reijntjes et al, ).…”

“…IGT—a novel social evolution theoretical view for the bullying research field—can serve as a plausible explanation for adolescents’ motivation for peer defending, especially when peer defending is framed as a heterogeneous construct. Previous studies have related defending to being skilled and competent at the social, emotional, and physical levels (e.g., Gini, Albiero, Benelli, & Altoè, ; Lambe et al, ; Pronk et al, ). Moreover, indirect and hybrid defending were found to be associated with social preference, while direct and hybrid defending were found to be associated with popularity (Reijntjes et al, ).…”

Adolescents' willingness to help with peer victimisation in Taiwan: The role of individual and situation‐specific characteristics

“…Adolescents' responses to peer victimisation as bystanders have been studied extensively in Western society. This research recognises that peer bystanders represent valuable avenues in combating peer victimisation (see Lambe, Della Cioppa, Hong, & Craig, 2018 for a systematic review). To illustrate, peer bystanders' disapproval of bullies and active defence of victims sends a message to adolescents who are bullying that harming others will not increase social status (Pozzoli, Gini, & Thornberg, 2017).…”