Adolescent Empathy Influences Bystander Defending in School Bullying: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Even though numerous studies have shown that adolescent empathy is positively related to bystander defending in school bullying, others have failed to detect a significant association between these two variables. To address this discrepancy, a three-level meta-analysis of 27 papers (35 independent studies, N = 25,012 adolescents) was conducted. The results showed that empathy was positively correlated with bystander defending. Furthermore, the strength of the relationship between empathy and bystander defending was moderated by the type of empathy and the evaluators of defending. Specifically, the correlation coefficient between affective empathy and bystander defending (r = 0.27, 95% CI [0.22, 0.32]) was significantly stronger than that between cognitive empathy and bystander defending (r = 0.22, 95% CI [0.17, 0.28]). Finally, the strength of the relationship between empathy and bystander defending was moderated by the evaluator of defending behavior. That is, the correlation coefficient of bystander defending measured by self-evaluation was significantly stronger than that measured by peer-evaluation. The results showed that empathy was closely related to bystander defending. Thus, school bullying can be prevented from the perspective of enhancing empathy among adolescents.

Associations Between Classroom Climate, Empathy, Self-Efficacy, and Countering Hate Speech Among Adolescents: A Multilevel Mediation Analysis

“…These results suggest that adolescents who show empathy and believe that hate speech is hurtful to the targeted person might perceive hate speech as more objectionable and, thus, are more willing to intervene. This finding is aligned with research showing that empathy is negatively related to antisocial behavior, intolerance, and prejudice (Boag & Carnelley, 2016;Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008) and positively associated with defending victims of bullying (Deng et al, 2021;Van Noorden et al, 2015). Moreover, the present study extends previous research showing that empathy is negatively related to online hate speech perpetration among adolescents (Wachs et al, 2022a(Wachs et al, , 2022b.…”

“…Low levels of empathy have been shown to be related to higher antisocial behavior, intolerance, and prejudice (Boag & Carnelley, 2016;Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008). In contrast, meta-analyses and systematic reviews revealed that high levels of empathy are related to defending victims of bullying against students who perpetrate bullying (e.g., Deng et al, 2021;Van Noorden et al, 2015). Other empirical research on hate speech found that adolescents are less likely to be perpetrators of such behavior when they think that online hate speech leads to negative consequences (Wachs et al, 2022a(Wachs et al, , 2022b.…”

Students' defending and passive bystanding behaviours when witnessing school bullying in North Western Ethiopia: Roles of personal and situational factors

“…Consistent with our expectations and previous research (e.g., Deng, Yang, & Wu, 2021;Gini et al, 2008;Lambe et al, 2019;Nickerson, Mele, & Princiotta, 2008;Silke, Brady, Boylan, & Dolan, 2018), the current study indicated that affective empathy was a significant predictor of defending behaviour. When bystanders witness bullying victimization, they feel bad for the victim and motivated to intervene (Thornberg et al, 2012).…”

Dispositional mindfulness plays a major role in adolescents' active and passive responding to bully‐victim dynamics

“…Other findings support the notion that empathy is related to defending behavior also among younger children (e.g., Pozzoli et al, 2017), and more specifically, that cognitive empathy is related to the ability to notice bullying and the intention to intervene, while affective empathy is related to the actual act of intervention (Fredrick et al, 2020). A meta‐analysis that examined the link between empathy and bystanding found that affective empathy is more strongly related to defending behavior, relative to cognitive empathy among adolescents (Deng et al, 2021). However, the relationship between empathy and defending behaviors has been called into question.…”