Forgiveness has been shown to be a helpful strategy for victims of many different forms of abuse and trauma. It has also been theoretically linked to positive outcomes for victims of bullying. However, it has never been experimentally manipulated in a school bullying context. This research investigates an experimental manipulation providing children with response advice following a bullying incident. Children read hypothetical physical and verbal bullying scenarios, followed by advice from a friend to either respond with forgiveness, avoidance, or revenge, in a within-subjects repeated measures design. One hundred eighty-four children aged 11 to 15 from private schools in Sydney participated in this study. Results indicated that advice to forgive the perpetrator led to significantly less anger than advice to either avoid or exact revenge. Avoidance was the most likely advice to be followed by students and the most likely to result in ignoring the bullying and developing empathy for their abuser. However, it also resulted in interpretations of the bullying as being more serious. Forgiveness is suggested as an effective coping response for ameliorating the affective aggressive states of victimized youth, with further exploration needed regarding the interplay between the avoidance and forgiveness processes.
The impact of focusing on immediate stress reduction in dealing with bullying is explored, and a combination of short-term avoidance and longer term forgiveness is highlighted as a potentially effective strategy to deal with the negative emotional consequences of victimization.
This paper presents findings from a case study conducted as part of the EU project, BYTE – ‘The Big data roadmap and cross‐disciplinarY community for addressing socieTal Externalities’. The article seeks to outline the role of big data in the different stages of crisis management and the organizational and societal benefits associated with engagement with this data. This article supports findings from other studies in that big data is able to significantly contribute to crisis response efforts. Big data can support organizations in their efforts to be better informed as data are able to significantly contribute to situational awareness, which can in turn inform decision‐making, such as resource allocation. In addition, this study has demonstrated that big data is also able to positively inform preparation and precrisis efforts. However, at present, little is known about the contribution of big data to recovery efforts; demonstrating the need for further research in this area. As such, big data does appear to provide a number of positive benefits to organizations, benefits of which can then subsequently positively impact society.
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