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Introduction Bullying is a group phenomenon where peers often act as bystanders. The adoption of a specific role in bullying depends on individual factors, relational experiences, and the prevalent moral climate. Attitudes and cognitions favoring aggression and low levels of empathy towards other people are associated with bullying. However, shared beliefs and behaviors in a classroom can contribute significantly to bullying dynamics. This study explored how individual-level factors (moral disengagement, anti-bullying attitudes, empathy-related responding) and classroom-level factors (anti-bullying attitudes, moral atmosphere) are linked with bystander roles in bullying dynamics among high school students.
Method The study involved 1265 high school students (65.7% males) from 72 classes, aged 14-17 years (Mage = 15.13, SD = 0.72). Students self-reported their roles in bullying situations and their anti-bullying attitudes. Also, they completed the Moral Disengagement Scale (Bandura et al., 1996), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for empathy-related responding (Davis, 1980), and the Moral Atmosphere scale (Høst et al., 1998).
Results The multilevel analysis showed that students more likely to morally disengage and hold fewer anti-bullying attitudes were more inclined to assist or reinforce the bully. At the class level, anti-bullying attitudes were negatively associated with assisting the bully. Higher empathy was linked to defending the victim, with no significant class-level effects. The class moral atmosphere was associated with assisting and passive bystander behavior, though the effect was small.
Conclusions Anti-bullying efforts may be most effective when targeting both individual attitudes/beliefs and the broader classroom environment. Further research is needed to inform more comprehensive strategies.
Keywords
Bullying roles; multilevel analysis; individual determinants; contextual factors.
| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Quantitative method study |
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| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Scientific |
