Speakers
Description
When bullying occurs, bystanders are often present. Encouraging peers to defend victims has been suggested as one promising solution to decrease bullying. Although much research has been devoted to characteristics of defenders, important questions remain regarding how the experience of victimization relates to defending and friendship formation, whether victims are actually better-off when they are defended, and how some individual characteristics interact to predict defending.
This symposium brings together researchers from Austria, Finland, Netherlands, Spain and South Korea to answer these questions. Using random-intercept-cross-lagged-panel models and four waves, Study 1 found that defending was not a risk factor for subsequent victimization, as there were no significant within-person associations between any of the three types of defending investigated and victimization. Using longitudinal social network analyses, Study 2 found that early adolescents tended to form friendships with peers who experienced similar levels of victimization (peer selection) and friends’ levels of victimization affected students’ own victimization (peer influence). This latter effect only occurred, however, in classrooms with a high sense of peer community. Study 3 uses a person-centered approach to reveal four profiles of victims differing both in levels of victimization and the extent to which they are defended and will examine how this affects their psychological adjustment. Study 4 uses a longitudinal design and multigroup analyses to show that higher levels of moral courage predicted engaging in defending behaviours, but this association was stronger for boys.
Professor Christina Salmivalli will discuss implications of these findings for anti-bullying intervention efforts.
Keywords
Victimization; Defending; Bystander behavior; Friendships
Additional field for symposia
Symposium Chair: Claire Garandeau, University of Turku
Symposium Discussant: Christina Salmivalli, University of Turku
Authors
Study 1: Sarah Malamut, Claire Garandeau, Christina Salmivalli, University of Turku
Study 2: Jingu Kim, Busan National University of Education & Radboud University, Jelle Sijtsema, University of Groningen & Tilburg University
Study 3: Daniel Graf, University of Turku, Takuya Yanagida, University of Vienna, Lydia Laninga-Wijnen, University of Turku
Study 4: Paula García-Carrera, Antonio Camacho, Rosario Ortega-Ruiz, Eva Romera, University of Cordoba
Study 1: Defending Behavior and Victimization: Between and Within-Person Associations
To reduce school bullying, many intervention efforts focus on utilizing peer bystanders. However, youth seem to be hesitant to consistently defend their peers, presumably out of fear of becoming victimized themselves (Strindberg et al., 2020). Defending is widely described as a risky behavior in research on the topic and has indeed been found to be positively associated with victimization concurrently in some studies (e.g., Lambe et al., 2019). The limited longitudinal research has produced mixed findings regarding whether defending is (Huitsing et al., 2014) or is not (Malamut et al., 2021) positively associated with victimization over time.
The present longitudinal study examines whether victimization is associated with future defending behavior and whether defending behavior is associated with future victimization. We will extend past research on this topic by separately considering three different types of defending (i.e., directly confronting the bully, comforting/supporting the victim, telling the teacher) and using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) that allow us to disentangle within-person changes from between-person effects.
Our sample includes 5179 Finnish youth (grades 4-9) followed across 4 waves. Peer-reports were used to assess three types of defending, and victimization was assessed with both self- and peer- reports. Results showed that there was a significant, negative between-person association of comforting defending and self-reported victimization. There were no significant concurrent or prospective within-person associations between any type of defending and (self- or peer-reported) victimization. As defending was not a risk factor for subsequent victimization, it is safe for anti-bullying programs to promote defending.
Study 2: Peer dynamics of victimization and the moderating effects of class-level peer community
This study investigates the interplay between friendship networks and peer victimization during early adolescence. Using a longitudinal social network model (SIENA), we examined whether similarity in peer victimization promotes friendship formation (peer selection) and whether the victimization of friends influences changes in students’ own experiences of victimization (peer influence).
Participants included 960 fifth- and sixth-grade students (48% girls) from 37 elementary school classrooms in South Korea across the beginning (Time 1) to the end (Time 2) of the school semester. Results indicated that early adolescents tended to form friendships with peers who experienced similar levels of victimization (peer selection) and became more similar to their friends concerning their levels of peer victimization (peer influence). Additionally, the peer community, defined as relational cohesion among classmates, played a significant moderating role: friends’ levels of victimization affected students’ own victimization only in classrooms with a high sense of peer community. Contrary to the peer influence effect, there was no significant moderation of the classroom peer community on selection effect of peer victimization.
These findings suggest that peer selection and influence processes are central to the co-evolution of friendships and peer victimization among elementary school students. This study underscores the importance of teachers’ awareness of their classroom relational dynamics in order to tackle bullying.
Study 3: Student profiles of being victimized and defended: Transitions over time and implications for psychological adjustment
Background: Research on whether being defended benefits victims has yielded mixed findings. Some cross-sectional studies found better psychological adjustment among defended victims, while a longitudinal study found that defended victims reported stronger classroom belonging but similar levels of victimization, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms compared to non-defended victims. However, previous studies used variable-oriented approaches, limiting insights into changes in victim and being defended roles over time and their impact on psychological adjustment.
Methods: This study uses a person-centered approach with data from a large-scale project (SOLID), which aims to identify key factors influencing the long-term effects of defending. At three points within one school year, about 6,000 Finnish 4th to 9th-grade students completed questionnaires on their victimization and being defended experiences, as well as on their feelings of belonging, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.
Results: Latent class analysis identified four consistent defended-victim profiles over time: (1) very highly victimized, moderately defended; (2) highly victimized, moderately defended; (3) moderately victimized, highly defended; and (4) moderately victimized, minimally defended. The non-victimized, non-defended group was subsequently included, resulting in a total of five profiles overall. In a second step, we will investigate how profile memberships and transitions between profiles overtime relate to within-person changes in psychological adjustment.
Conclusion: This study provides insights into distinct subgroups of defended victims and highlights how shifts in victimization and being defended may shape psychological development. Our findings could guide educators and health professionals in offering tailored support to victims based on their unique experiences with victimization and being defended.
Study 4: Moral courage as a predictor of defending victims of bullying: A longitudinal study in preadolescence
Defending behaviours are essential for mitigating the effects of bullying and fostering safe school environments. However, a deeper understanding of the factors that promote defending is needed. Moral courage, defined as a cognitive process in which the bystander recognizes injustice and decides to act despite the personal risks involved, may be play a crucial role in defending victims of bullying.
This longitudinal study investigates whether moral courage predicts defending behaviours in a sample of 1312 Spanish preadolescents aged 9 to 12, recruited from 14 middle schools. Among them, 320 students (24.4%) reported having witnessed victimization situations in recent months (51.9% girls, Mage = 11.2, SD = 0.8). Data collection occurred at two time points, with a one-year interval between waves. Measures of self-reported defending behaviours
(comforting, 5 items; reporting to authority, 4 items; solution-focused, 4 items; aggressive, 5
items) and moral courage (6 items) were obtained. A structural equation model was used to test
the effect of moral courage on defending behaviours.
Results showed that higher levels of moral courage significantly predicted the adoption of defending behaviours. A multigroup analysis indicated that these associations were stronger among boys than among girls.
These findings have important implications for school interventions. They suggest that antibullying programs should promote moral courage and tailor their approaches to each gender to maximize effectiveness.
| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Scientific |
|---|---|
| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Quantitative method study |
