Links from Teacher Beliefs to Peer Victimization and Bystander Intervention

Tests of Mediating Processes

Bibliographic Data

ID11670798
AuthorsJoel M Hektner (0000-0002-8420-9885, North Dakota State University, Fargo, corresponding author), Christopher A Swenson (North Dakota State University, Fargo)
Year2011
Volume32
Issue4
Pages516-536
Publication date2011-03-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Early Adolescence (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0272-4316 • E-ISSN: 1552-5449
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0272431611402502
OpenAlexW2167073970
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited34

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

Bystander effect · Developmental psychology · Empathy · Intervention (counseling · Normative · Peer group · Peer victimization · Perception · Poison control · Suicide prevention · Witness · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Medicine · Plant Virus Research Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology