Children’s Physiological and Emotional Reactions to Witnessing Bullying Predict Bystander Intervention

Abstract

Study goals were to explore whether children clustered into groups based on reactions to witnessing bullying and to examine whether these reactions predicted bullying intervention. Seventy-nine children (M = 10.80 years) watched bullying videos in the laboratory while their heart rate (HR) was measured, and they self-reported on negative emotion after each video. Bullying intervention was assessed by school peers. Two groups emerged based on reactions to the bullying videos: The Emotional group (43% of children) displayed HR acceleration and reported high negative emotion, whereas the Unemotional group (57% of children) showed HR deceleration and reported low negative emotion. Group membership predicted bullying intervention, with peers reporting that Emotional children were more likely to stop a bully than Unemotional children.

Emotions of students involved in cases of bullying

“…In these cases, the lack of empathy is related to the continuity of the bullying situation, as the aggressors do not understand or identify themselves with the suffering they are provoking in their classmates. 10 This condition is particularly severe for the investigated boys, considering that most of them reported not feeling anything while assaulting their classmates. On the opposite, sadness, shame and demotivation can discourage the violence, because the aggressors understand the damage caused to the victims or the inappropriateness of their behavior to life in the school context.…”

“…Although the information on how the emotional conditions of children and adolescents in bullying situations are related to their reaction towards the aggression remain limited, it is clear that the emotions can function as catalysts of this process, stimulating more or less appropriate reactions to cope with the violence. 10 Anger, for example, is associated with specific forms of action, such as fights, which can both interrupt the situation of violence and increase the number of aggressions if the victim does not have sufficient physical strength for the purpose of self-defense. 18 Another possibility is that the anger stimulates the victims to reproduce the aggressions they were victims of in other students with less conditions for self-defense, from the physical, psychological or social viewpoint.…”

“…3,5 Concerning the victims and witnesses, they are more prone to constant fear, anxiety, negative thinking, low self-esteem, depression, selfpunishment, psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, dizziness, stomach problems, among others) and suicidal ideas. 10 The aggressors, in turn, tend to engage in situations of domestic violence, psychoactive substance abuse, vandalism and infractions. [11][12][13] The consequences of engaging in situations of bullying can accompany the students' life and make them attribute senses, meanings and/or respond to the social relations.…”

“…Concerning the aggressors, understanding the emotions related to the aggressive acts they practice can help them to develop greater self-mastery and to relate with their peers in a non-violent manner. 20 In view of the above, this kind of research, aiming to know what the students involved in situations of bullying (victims and aggressors) feel is necessary not only for theoretical reasons, but also based on an applied perspective, 10,21 as the construction of knowledge on the theme can support evidence-based prevention, health promotion and development practices. This knowledge can also support strategies to cope with bullying, aiming to promote comprehensive and intersectoral actions, especially between health and education, mainly considering that the emotions associated with episodes of bullying have been hardly investigated in the literature.…”

Factors that Influence Bystander Behavior in the Cyberbully Context

“…Research on traditional bullying suggests that in many instances bullying is not just a dyadic process between a bully and a victim but is a triangle involving others who become witness to bullying behaviors either directly or indirectly (Barhight, Hubbard, and Hyde, 2013;Coloroso, 2011;Evers, Prochaska, Van Marter, Johnson, and Prochaska, 2007;Gini, Albiero, Benelli, and Altoe, 2008;Gini, Pozzoli, Borghi, and Franzoni, 2008;Lodge and Frydenberg, 2005;McNamee and Mercurio, 2008;Salmivalli, 2010;Salmivalli and Voeten, 2004). The three main players within the bullying triangle, then, consist of the bully, the victim/target, and the bystander.…”