Aggressive Attitudes and Prevalence of Bullying Bystander Behavior in Middle School

Abstract

Separate lines of research find that proaggressive attitudes promote peer aggression and that bystanders play a pivotal role in deterring or facilitating bullying behavior. The current study hypothesized that proaggressive attitudes in middle school would deter students from standing up to bullying and encourage them to reinforce bullying behavior. Middle school students (n = 28,765) in 423 schools completed a statewide school climate survey that included an aggressive attitudes scale and their bystander response to a recent episode of bullying, which was categorized as upstanding, reinforcing, or passive. Multilevel logistic regressions indicated that higher aggressive attitudes were associated with less upstanding behavior at the school level and less upstanding behavior and more reinforcing behavior at the individual level, while controlling for other school and student demographic variables. These findings suggest that antibullying programs might address student attitudes toward aggression as a means of boosting positive bystander intervention. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Styles of Bystander Intervention in Cyberbullying Incidents

“…Grade 8 students reported higher constructive intervention than did grade 10 students. These results converge with previous studies that have shown younger adolescents are significantly more likely to help in bullying scenarios than are older adolescents (Allison and Bussey 2017;Datta et al 2016;Stevens et al 2000). Males in the study reported higher moral disengagement, cyberbullying perpetration, victimization, and aggressive intervention behaviours than did females.…”

“…Previous studies in traditional bullying have found that females are more likely to defend victims than are males Reijntjes et al 2016;Salmivalli et al 1996;Trach et al 2010) and younger students are more likely to defend than are older students (Datta et al 2016;Stevens et al 2000). Findings on grade and gender effects for bystander intervention in cyberbullying have been inconsistent (Allison and Bussey 2017;Barlińska et al 2013;Caravita et al 2012;Datta et al 2016;Macháčková et al 2013;Van Cleemput et al 2014). This inconsistency may be due to the increased anonymity of the cyber context, as adolescents perceive less pressure to exhibit age and gender-typical behaviours than in traditional bullying contexts.…”

“…Constructive victim-focused intervention is defined as any behaviour that supports the victim, such as providing comfort or offering advice (Cassidy et al 2013;DeSmet et al 2012;DeSmet et al 2014;DeSmet et al 2016). Preliminary evidence suggests that aggressive responses can escalate cyberbullying incidents (Datta et al 2016;DeSmet et al 2016), whereas constructive responses can stop bullying (Pronk et al 2019).…”

Rethinking Bullying Interventions for High School Students: A Qualitative Study

“…A significant number of students witness bullying at school, with estimates ranging from 70-88% (Rivers, Poteat, Noret, & Ashurst, 2009). Findings indicate that of the 55% of students in a recent study classified as bystanders (i.e., students who witness bullying, do not engage in bullying, and are not victims), 46% do nothing to intervene (Datta, Cornell, & Huang, 2016). This finding is important because when students intervene and/or console the victim, acting as "defenders" (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Björkqvist, Ősterman, & Kaukiainen, 1996, p.15), bullying behavior decreases (Padgett & Notar, 2013;Salmivalli, 2014).…”

Empati Afektif: Mediator Pengaruh Keterlibatan Orang Tua terhadap Peran Defender Remaja dalam Perundungan di Sekolah

“…Sejauh ini lebih banyak literatur yang membahas peran defender dan mengaitkannya dengan karakteristik individual (Datta, Cornell & Huang, 2016;Jenkins, Demaray, Frederick, & Summers, 2016), hubungan dengan teman sebaya (Gini, Pozzoli & Bussey, 2014;Van der Ploeg, Kretschmer, Salmivalli & Veenstra, 2017), dan konteks sekolah (Jungert et al, 2016;Storer, Casey, & Herrenkohl, 2017). Penelitian sebelumnya telah meneliti hubungan antara peran orang tua maupun empati terhadap peran defender, namun belum ada studi yang secara langsung mengaitkan melalui proses mediasi empati terhadap hubungan antara keterlibatan orang tua dan peran defender terutama pada usia remaja awal.…”