Abstract
AbstractThis study examined whether defending and passive bystanding during peer victimization episodes were associated with individual‐ and classroom‐level efficacy to stop peer victimization. Self‐report survey data were analyzed from 1,467 Swedish fourth‐grade students (mean age = 10.55) from 100 classrooms in 63 schools. Multilevel analyses revealed that, when witnessing peer victimization, students more often defended victims if they were high in defender self‐efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms high in collective efficacy. In contrast, students were more likely to remain passive if they were low in defender self‐efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms low in collective efficacy. Taken together, our findings suggest that efficacy beliefs both at the individual and at the classroom level contribute to explaining variability in students' bystander behaviors, which has potential implications for prevention and intervention work.
Highlights
Peer victimization is a group phenomenon in which most members, perpetrators and victims, are involved (Salmivalli, 2010)
Individual‐level variables gender and defender self‐efficacy (DSE) were included in the first model, which can be written as yij = β0j + β1GENDER + β2DSE + εij, β0j = β0 + u0j, where yij is the response for the ith child in the jth class, β0j is the intercept in classroom j, β1and β2 are slopes for individual‐level effects, εij is the residual for the ith child in the jth class, β0 is the mean intercept across classrooms, and u0j is the residual for classroom j
We know quite a lot about individual‐level correlates of bystander behavior, we know less about correlates at the classroom level (Lambe et al, 2019)
Summary
Peer victimization is a group phenomenon in which most members, perpetrators and victims, are involved (Salmivalli, 2010). Drawing on social‐cognitive theory, the current study examined whether defending and passive bystanding were associated with efficacy beliefs to stop peer victimization, both at the individual and classroom level. Without having a strong belief in one's ability to help victims, intervention would be unlikely In line with this tenet, previous research has found defender self‐efficacy to be associated with greater defending and less passive bystanding (e.g., Pronk et al, 2013; Sjögren, Thornberg, Wänström, & Gini, 2020; Thornberg et al, 2017). With reference to the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997; Barchia & Bussey, 2011b; Fernández‐Ballesteros, Díez‐Nicolás, Carpara, Barbaranelli, & Bandura, 2002), it would be plausible to assume that high collective efficacy to stop peer aggression at the classroom level would function as a group characteristic that facilitates and supports defending. Previous research suggests that girls are more inclined to defend victims, boys are more inclined to stay passive (e.g., Pozzoli & Gini, 2013; Thornberg et al, 2017), and that defending is more frequent in classrooms with fewer students (Peets, Pöyhönen, Juvonen, & Salmivalli, 2015; Salmivalli et al, 2011; but see null results in Thornberg et al, 2017)
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