Links from Teacher Beliefs to Peer Victimization and Bystander Intervention

Abstract

In an attempt to explicate how cultural norms within a school could impact bullying, the current study assessed potential mediators of the relationship between teacher beliefs about bullying and actual peer victimization and inclinations of students to intervene when they witness bullying. Participants were 340 third through eighth graders and 66 of their teachers. Results showed that teachers with stronger beliefs that bullying is normative were less likely to intervene to stop bullying, and lack of intervention was in turn related to higher levels of peer victimization in their school. Furthermore, the beliefs of teachers that victims should assert themselves were linked to lower levels of peer empathy for victims, which in turn made peers less inclined to intervene. Teacher intervention and peer empathy, as mediators, were linked to student levels of victimization and willingness to intervene both between-school-grade cohorts and within-grade cohorts at an individual perceptual level.