Bullying often takes place in front of bystanders, who in most cases do not intervene. In this master's thesis, we included elementary school class teachers and school counselors as bystanders in order to examine their attitudes toward verbal and physical bullying. Theoretically, we relied on the bystander intervention model, which outlines five steps of intervention (notice the event, interpret the event as an emergency that requires help, accept responsibility for intervening, know how to intervene or provide help and implement intervention decisions). We adapted and validated a questionnaire to measure adult bystander intervention behaviors in school settings. We found that employees in Slovenian primary schools were least successful at the first step of the model, noticing bullying events. Compared to physical bullying, participants noticed verbal bullying events more often on average and attributed more knowledge and skills to themselves to take action. We also compared both groups of participants and found that school counselors paid significantly more attention to bullying situations than teachers. Previous research has highlighted empathy as an important factor in intervention, so we examined its role in our thesis as well. Results showed that both the emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy were correlated with most steps of the intervention model. We also examined the role of other factors (years of service, number of hours per week with students, length of time as a class teacher, etc.). The correlation of these factors with the intervention steps of the model was low or not statistically significant. This research highlights the importance of the role of class teachers and school counselors as bystanders of bullying. We gained insight into the presence of each intervention step for traditional bullying and the factors associated with it. The results indicate that we should promote empathy and sensitivity to bullying among employees in elementary schools, as most room for development lies in the first stage of intervention - noticing bullying events.
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