Early Adolescents’ Motivations to Defend Victims of Cyberbullying

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how different types of motivation to defend victims of bullying would be associated with various bystander behaviors in cyberbullying situations among early adolescents in Sweden. Data were collected from 460 Swedish adolescents aged between 11 and 15 years who completed a survey in their classroom. Results showed that autonomous motivation to defend was positively associated with defender behavior and negatively associated with pro-bully and passive behavior, while extrinsic motivation was positively associated with pro-bully and passive behavior. Age was positively associated with increased passive behavior and dampened defensive behavior, while no effect of gender was found on defender behavior. Our findings suggest that students’ autonomous motivation to defend victims is important in cyberbullying situations.

Investigating the effects of autonomy-supportive parenting practices on Italian young adolescent students’ motivation to defend victims of bullying: findings on the mediating roles of reactance, depression, anxiety, and stress

“…Nonetheless, our finding that autonomy-supportive parenting appeared to lower depression, stress, and anxiety, is in line with the existing evidence on the protective effect of caring and supportive parenting strategies on youths' mental wellbeing (e.g., Ortega et al, 2021;Rakhshani et al, 2022). Finally, the gender differences that emerged in our sample could be explained by some evidence in motivational research of girls showing more autonomous motivation than boys (Ratelle et al, 2007;Vansteenkiste et al, 2009), but findings of gender differences in prosocial motivation have not been confirmed by other studies (Jungert et al, 2021;Iotti et al, 2022). Moreover, girls in our sample reported higher levels of anxiety, depression, and stress, compared to boys, in line with the current literature on gender differences in mental health, which reports that girls have worse internalizing mental health than boys, and that this gender gap continues to increase with age (Cavallo et al, 2006;Torsheim et al, 2006;Campbell et al, 2021).…”

“…The final sample consisted of 578 students ages 10–14 years (M = 11.8, sd = 0.79 years, 52% male). The students completed a survey, which included an adapted version of the General Causality Orientation Scale ( Deci and Ryan, 1985 ; Legate et al, 2019 ), a reactance scale ( Vansteenkiste et al, 2014 ), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale ( Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995 ), and the Motivation to Defend Scale ( Jungert et al, 2016 ; Iotti et al, 2022 ), in their classrooms during school hours. Research assistants were present during data collection to aid participants and provide clarifications when needed.…”

“…Motivation to defend was measured with the Motivation to Defend Scale (MDS; Jungert et al, 2016 ; Iotti et al, 2022 ), which is a self-report instrument designed for young adolescents (ages 10–15 years). It measures a child’s motivation to defend victims of bullying on four subscales: Intrinsic (e.g., “Because I like to help other people”), Identified (e.g., “Because I think it is important to help people who are treated badly”), Introjected (e.g., “Because I would feel like a bad person if I did not try to help”), and Extrinsic (e.g., “In order to receive a reward”).…”

“…Each of the 16 items is answered on a 5point Likert scale (1 = Completely disagree, 5 = Completely agree). In line with previous research (Jungert and Perrin, 2019;Iotti et al, 2022), we used the Intrinsic and Identified subscales to calculate Autonomous motivation.…”

“…Additionally, we investigated the possible mediating roles of reactance and factors such as depression, anxiety, and stress between autonomy-supportive parenting and motivation to defend, as well as controlling for possible gender differences. This was decided because the available evidence on gender differences is inconclusive, with some studies on prosocial motivation reporting that girls exhibit more autonomous motivation than boys (e.g., Vansteenkiste et al, 2009 ), while other studies were unable to confirm the presence of said differences (e.g., Iotti et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, we wanted to investigate possible gender differences in internalizing symptoms, considering the compelling evidence on the presence of a gender gap in mental health between girls and boys ( Torsheim et al, 2006 ; Campbell et al, 2021 ).…”