I CARE Training to Increase the Self-Efficacy and Prosocial Behavior of Students Observers of Bullying

Abstract

Bullying is a problem that often occurs in school communities. One factor that contributes to the continuance of bullying is the number of passive witnesses to the bullying who stand by and do nothing to prevent it or to help the victim. Decreased pro-social behavior in bystanders has been correlated with low self-efficacy. In such cases, people prefer to avoid intervening in the situation because they are afraid of becoming the next victim of bullying and because they do not know what to do. The present research consists of two studies, the first of which is focused on I CARE training to increase self-efficacy on bystanders. Both studies used the same participants. The effectiveness of the training was evaluated using the Self-Efficacy Scale, the Prosocial Behavior Scale, and the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test. Data from the second study showed a significant correlation between self-efficacy and pro-social bystander behavior. The results show that, after the I CARE training, 1) the student participants know what to do when bullying occurs, 2) they try to stop the bullying, and 3) they become more confident in their ability to help the victims of bullying. In addition, the results of Study 2 show that self-efficacy has a positive correlation with the pro-social behavior of bystanders. Thus, a bystander with higher self-efficacy also has higher pro-social behavior. If bystanders intervene when bullying occurs, the bullying will likely stop. Therefore, I CARE training programs in schools can increase selfefficacy behaviors in witnesses of bullying incidents and promote pro-social behaviors to help victims.