Me and Others Around: The Roles of Personal and Social Norms in Chinese Adolescent Bystanders’ Responses Toward Cyberbullying

Abstract

Researchers have expanded the aggressor-victim dyad by showing that bystanders play pivotal roles in the process of cyberbullying. Bystanders’ responses entail moral engagement and are guided by personal and social norms. Most research on normative influences on bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying has focused on personal or social norms but has ignored how they jointly affect bystanders’ responses. Inspiring by the modified Theory of Planned Behavior, a cross-sectional study of Chinese high-school students ( N = 333) examined how cyberbullying-related personal and social norms affect adolescent bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying. We collected information on personal norms, social norms, and bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying. Boys reported stronger intentions than girls to reinforce the bully, but intentions to help the victim were equivalent among boys and girls. Regression analysis revealed that pro-cyberbullying personal and social norms combined could negatively predict intentions to help the victim. However, personal and social norms interacted to influence behavioral intentions to reinforce the bully. Specifically, when pro-cyberbullying social norms were at a high level, a higher level of pro-cyberbullying personal norms was correlated with higher intentions to reinforce the bully. Conversely, when pro-cyberbullying social norms were at a low level, the effect of personal norms disappeared. The findings contribute to understanding the process by which adolescents adapt themselves to norms and provide guidance for educational advice on intervening in cyberbullying.

Bidirectional Relationships Between Cyberbystanders’ Roles, Cyberbullying Perpetration, and Justification of Violence

“…These results are consistent with those obtained in previous studies between the justification of violence belief and bystanders’ behavior (Machackova & Pfetsch, 2016; Walters & Espelage, 2021). Additionally, cyberbully reinforcers and assistants had the highest scores in CB perpetration, indicating that those who support the aggressors are also the ones who attack on other occasions (Dang & Liu, 2020; Van Cleemput et al, 2014). Also, outsiders scored higher than victim defenders both in justification of violence and CB perpetration.…”

“…Limited research on the relationship between cyberbystanders' reactions and their CB perpetration offers interesting findings. Generally, being a cyberbully has proven to be an important predictor of reinforcing the aggressor when witnessing CB (Barlińska et al, 2013(Barlińska et al, , 2015Dang & Liu, 2020;Van Cleemput et al, 2014). For example, in a cross-sectional study with 333 Chinese adolescents, CB perpetration was related to intentions to reinforce the bully (Dang & Liu, 2020).…”

“…Generally, being a cyberbully has proven to be an important predictor of reinforcing the aggressor when witnessing CB (Barlińska et al, 2013(Barlińska et al, , 2015Dang & Liu, 2020;Van Cleemput et al, 2014). For example, in a cross-sectional study with 333 Chinese adolescents, CB perpetration was related to intentions to reinforce the bully (Dang & Liu, 2020). In another cross-sectional study, adolescents who bullied online were more likely to participate when they witness CB (Van Cleemput et al, 2014).…”

“…Finally, the third aim was to test gender differences in the model. Some studies have shown that boys, compared to girls, report higher intentions to reinforce the bully (Dang & Liu, 2020) whereas there are not gender differences in the intentions to help the victim (Dang & Liu, 2020; Machackova et al, 2018). However, other studies have found a greater proportion of girls among the victim defenders (Yudes-Gómez et al, 2018).…”

How beliefs and unpleasant emotions direct cyberbullying intentions

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on this variable with this operationalization in cyberbullying contexts. There has been little research regarding this issue in cyberbullying contexts ( Palladino et al., 2017 ) and recent literature has revealed that pro-cyberbullying personal and social norms could negatively influence bystanders’ intentions to help victims ( Dang and Liu, 2022 ). In fact, bystanders’ personal and social norms could interact to predict behavioral intentions to reinforce bullying behavior.…”