Abstract
Previous research has shown that group processes are particularly pertinent to children’s bullying, and who they socially exclude and include. This paper looks at how children’s responses to social exclusion change according to their friends’ group-based emotions. Children aged 8–11 years (N = 77) read stories about a friendship group to which they were said to belong and an instance of mild social exclusion. In the stories, the participants’ friends’ emotional reaction to the exclusion (pleased versus angry) was manipulated. Measures of assertive bystanding intentions and responses towards the friendship group and the social exclusion were taken. Children showed more assertive bystanding intentions when their friendship group was depicted as angry and they reported more anger when reacting to social exclusion. A mediation effect was found, with a perception of the friendship group’s emotion as anger being related to increased assertive bystanding, through an increase in the participant’s own anger towards their group’s act of social exclusion. This study is among the first to show that from 8 years of age, the social appraisal of group emotions can account for children’s reactions to social exclusion in a friendship group. Directions for future research in social appraisal of group-based emotion in social exclusion situations are discussed.
Highlights
Previous research has shown that group processes are pertinent to children’s bullying, and who they socially exclude and include
Social exclusion may be pernicious because, unlike for other forms of bullying, children who are rejected in this way are left without the support of the peer group, to help them deal with this rejection
We look for the first time at whether children engage in social appraisal to judge intragroup social exclusion scenarios
Summary
Previous research has shown that group processes are pertinent to children’s bullying, and who they socially exclude and include. Measures of assertive bystanding intentions and responses towards the friendship group and the social exclusion were taken. Children showed more assertive bystanding intentions when their friendship group was depicted as angry and they reported more anger when reacting to social exclusion. Bullying may be conceived of as aggression comprised of three identifying features (1) behavior intended to do harm, (2) behavior that is repeated over time, and (3) behavior that takes place in a social context in which there is an imbalance of power It may include indirect aggression, or relational aggression, covering the withdrawal of friendship, spreading of gossip, and social exclusion (Smith 2004). The key is to determine what leads to active over passive bystanding in the face of social exclusion In this regard, relatively little attention has been paid to bystanders’ emotional responses to witnessing bullying. The other part of this puzzle concerns the target’s (and the perpetrator’s) peer group and group processes of inclusion and exclusion
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