Psychosocial and moral factors of bystanders in peer bullying

Pečjak, Sonja (author), Pirc, Tina (author), Markovič, Rene (author), Špes, Tanja (author), Košir, Katja (author)

The aim of our study was to explore students’ bystander roles in peer bullying considering the interaction between their individual and contextual characteristics. We included social status goals (popularity, social preference and social insecurity), moral disengagement and peer support as key variables for differentiating bystander behaviour. Our sample comprised 5148 students from the 8th and 9th grades across 118 primary schools in Slovenia. Bystander roles (active and passive reinforcers, ignorants and defenders) were determined by peer nominations. Other characteristics were measured with self-report questionnaires. For each variable, we normalized students’ results with regard to their classroom to define classroom norms as the context of peer bullying resulting in “low”, “average” and “high” group. Students with similar individual and contextual characteristics were grouped into four clusters. The results showed that students from all clusters were present in all bystander roles, which indicates a highly complex interaction of various factors in bystander behaviour. Some educational implications are discussed.

• Language: English
• Keywords: peer bullying, bullying, bystanders, bystander roles, classtoom norms, peer support, morality, moral disengagement, social goals, students, elementary school students
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.09.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 617-629
• Numbering: Vol. 16, iss. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-163930
• UDC: 37.015.3:364.632
• ISSN on article: 1307-9298
• COBISS.SI-ID: 211398659
• Publication date in RUL: 14.10.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International electronic journal of elementary education
• Publisher: T&K Academic
• ISSN: 1307-9298
• COBISS.SI-ID: 525436953

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: medvrstniško nasilje, opazovalci, vrstniška podpora, moralnost, osnovnošolci

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-3114
• Name: Socialni kontekst kot dejavnik medvrstniškega nasilja: kako z oblikovanjem pozitivne vrstniške kulture prispevati k vključujoči šoli?