Teachers’ empathy and likelihood of intervention in hypothetical relational and retrospectively reported bullying situations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Prior research suggests that teachers with higher levels of empathy are more willing to intervene in bullying among students. However, these findings are based on hypothetical bullying situations and teachers’ self-reports. In this study with 2,071 German students and their 556 teachers, we analysed reactions to hypothetical relational bullying situations as well as retrospectively reported bullying situations both from the teachers’ as well as the students’ perspectives. Results showed that teachers with higher levels of empathy reported stronger intentions to intervene in hypothetical relational bullying situations but were not more likely to intervene in retrospectively reported bullying situations. From the students’ perspective, teachers’ empathy was neither connected to the teachers’ intention to intervene nor to the likelihood of intervention in the retrospectively reported situations. These different results could be taken as an opportunity to investigate whether existing findings could be influenced by methodological aspects such as teachers’ self-reports. Implications for future research are discussed.