![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
The aim of the current study was to examine how junior high school students interpret, motivate, and explain various bystander behaviors in bullying situations. The participants were 17 junior high school students recruited from four schools in Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed with grounded theory methods. The analysis generated a conceptual model of bystander interpreting–considering process in school bullying. A core category named ‘it depends’ was developed to explain how the participants in the study motivated their own and their peers’ actions as bystanders in various bullying situations. Whether they intervened or not depended on how they interpreted the situation in terms of: (a) seriousness of the situation, including trivialization; (b) social relationships with the involved; (c) locus of responsibility, including displacement of responsibility, and victim blame; (d) social status; (e) perception of risk; and (f) defender self-efficacy. The implications of these results for bullying prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.
References
| Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company. Google Scholar | |
| Bandura, A. (1999) Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review 3: 193–209. doi: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_3 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Barchia, K., Bussey, K. (2011) Predictors of student defenders of peer aggression victims: Empathy and social cognitive factors. International Journal of Behavioral Development 35: 289–297. doi: 10.1177/0165025410396746 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Bosacki, S. L., Marini, Z. A., Dane, A. V. (2006) Voices from the classroom: Pictorial and narrative representations of children's bullying experiences. Journal of Moral Education 35: 231–245. doi: 10.1080/03057240600681769 Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Charmaz, K. (2014) Constructing grounded theory, (2nd ed.). London: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
| Chen, L.-M., Chang, L. Y. C., Cheng, Y-Y. (2016) Choosing to be a defender or an outsider in school bullying incident: Determining factors and the defending process. School Psychology International 37: 289–302. doi: 10.1177/0143034316632282 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Corsaro, W. A. (2005) The sociology of childhood, (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Google Scholar | |
| Craig, W. M., Pepler, D. J., Atlas, R. (2000) Observations of bullying in the playground and in the classroom. School Psychology International 21: 22–36. doi: 10.1177/0143034300211002 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| de Bruyn, E. H., Cillessen, A. H. N., Wissink, I. B. (2010) Associations of peer acceptance and perceived popularity with bullying and victimization in early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence 30: 543–566. doi: 10.1177/0272431609340517 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Forsberg, C., Thornberg, R., Samuelsson, M. (2014) Bystanders to bullying: Fourth- to seventh-grade students' perspectives on their reactions. Research Papers in Education 29: 557–576. doi: 10.1080/02671522.2013.878375 Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Forsberg, C., Wood, L., Smith, J., Varjas, K., Meyers, J., Jungert, T., Thornberg, R. (2018) Students' views on factors affecting their bystander acts in bullying situations: A cross-collaborative conceptual qualitative analysis. Research Papers in Education 3: 127–142. doi: 10.1080/02671522.2016.1271001 Google Scholar | |
| Gini, G., Pozzoli, T., Borghi, F., Franzoni, L. (2008) The role of bystanders in students' perception of bullying and sense of safety. Journal of School Violence 46: 617–638. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2008.02.001 Google Scholar | |
| James, A., Prout, A. (1997) Constructing and reconstructing childhood, (2nd ed). London: Falmer. Google Scholar | |
| Latené, B., Darley, J. M. (1970) The unresponsive bystander: Why doesn't he help?, New York, NY: Meredith. Google Scholar | |
| Li, Y., Chen, P. Y., Chen, F.-L., Wu, W.-C. (2015) Roles of fatalism and parental support in the relationship between bullying victimization and bystander behaviors. School Psychology International 36: 253–267. doi: 10.1177/0143034315569566 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Mandell, N. (1991) The least-adult role in studying children. In: Walker, F. C. (ed.) Studying the social worlds of children: Sociological readings, London: Routledge Falmer, pp. 38–59. Google Scholar | |
| Olweus, D. (1993) Bullying in school, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Google Scholar | |
| Patton, D. U., Hong, J. S., Patel, S., Kral, M. J. (2017) A systematic review of research strategies used in qualitative studies on school bullying and victimization. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse 18: 3–16. doi: 10.1177/1524838015588502 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Pöyhönen, V., Juvonen, J., Salmivalli, C. (2012) Standing up for the victim, siding with the bully or standing by? Bystander responses in bullying situations. Social Development 21: 686–703. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2012.00662.x Google Scholar | |
| Pozzoli, T., Gini, G. (2013) Why do bystanders of bullying help or not? A multidimensional model. The Journal of Early Adolescence 33: 315–340. doi: 10.1177/0272431612440172 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Rudduck, J., Flutter, J. (2004) How to improve your school: Giving pupils a voice, London: Continuum. Google Scholar | |
| Salmivalli, C., Voeten, M., Poskiparta, E. (2011) Bystanders matter: Associations between reinforcing, defending, and the frequency of bullying behavior in classrooms. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 40: 668–676. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2011.597090 Google Scholar | Medline | ISI | |
| Song, J., Oh, I. (2017) Investigation of the bystander effect in school bullying: Comparison of experiential, psychological and situational factors. School Psychology International 38: 319–336. doi: 10.1177/0143034317699997 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Thornberg, R. (2007) A classmate in distress: Schoolchildren as bystander and their reasons for how they act. Social Psychology of Education 10: 5–28. doi: 10.1007/s11218-006-9009-4 Google Scholar | |
| Thornberg, R. (2010) A student in distress: Moral frames and bystander behavior in school. The Elementary School Journal 110: 585–608. doi: 10.1086/651197 Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Thornberg, R. (2012) Informed grounded theory. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 56: 243–259. doi: 10.1080/00313831.2011.581686 Google Scholar | |
| Thornberg, R., Jungert, T. (2014) School bullying and the mechanisms of moral disengagement. Aggressive Behavior 40: 99–108. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Thornberg, R., Tenenbaum, L., Varjas, K., Meyers, J., Jungert, T., Vanegas, G. (2012) Bystander motivation in bullying incidents: To intervene or not?. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 13: 247–252. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2012.3.11792 Google Scholar |
Author biographies
Robert Thornberg, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning at Linköping University in Sweden. He is also a Board member for the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). He has three lines of current research: School bullying as moral and social processes; student teachers' and medical students' meaning-making, coping, and learning in emotionally distressing educational situations; and values education, norms, and moral practices in everyday school life.
Lena Landgren has a Master of Science in Psychology from the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning at Linköping University in Sweden, and is now at the end of her one-year psychology internship in order to become a licensed psychologist. She has an interest in school psychology, clinical psychology, and organizational psychology.
Erika Wiman has a Master of Science in Psychology from the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning at Linköping University in Sweden, and is now at the end of her one-year psychology internship in order to become a licensed psychologist. She has an interest in school psychology, clinical psychology, neuropsychology, and child and adolescent psychiatry.
