Browsing by Subject "Bystander intervention"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
Adolescents’ expectations for types of victim retaliation following direct bullying
(Springer, 2022-11-23) Marlow, C.; Gönültaş, Seçil; Mulvey, K. L.
Little is known about adolescents’ expectations around how victims of bullying might retaliate following victimization. These expectations are important as they may inform adolescent’s own behaviors, particularly intervention behaviors, in regard to bullying and potential retaliation. This study investigated adolescents’ retaliation expectations and expected bystander reactions to retaliation following physical and social bullying. Participants included 6th grade (N = 450, Mage = 11.73 years, SD = 0.84) and 9th grade (N = 446, Mage = 14.82 years) adolescents (50.2% female, 63.3% European American, 22.9% African American, 3.9% Latino/a, 7% Multiracial, 2.9% Other) from middle-to-low-income U.S. public schools. Participants responded to open-ended prompts about victim responses to bullying, rating retaliation acceptability, and likelihood of engaging in bystander behaviors. ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in retaliation expectation by type of aggression. Further, linear regressions were used to explore what factors were related to participants’ expectations regarding bystander intervention. Participants expected victims to retaliate by causing harm and expected the type of retaliation to match the type of bullying. Younger participants were more specific and males were more likely to expect physical harm than females. Finally, acceptability of retaliation predicted bystander interventions. Adolescents expect aggressive retaliation suggesting that intervention might focus on teaching them ways to respond when they are bullied or observe bullying.
Open Access
Predictors of college students reasoning and responses to gender based social exclusion
(Springer Dordrecht, 2023-01-05) Herry, E.; Gönültaş, Seçil; Mulvey, K. L.
This study examines how young adults evaluate gender-based social inclusion and exclusion from academic peer groups. Participants included 199 college students (M$_{age}$ = 19.18; SD = 1.37, Range = 18–25), who made judgments about the acceptability of gender-based social exclusion of female and male peers from a Physics group (a stereotypically masculine field) and bystander responses to gender-based social exclusion. Equitable attitudes and acceptability of gender-based social exclusion were examined as predictors of bystander responses to social exclusion. Findings showed that participants were less likely to see the exclusion of a female as acceptable compared to the exclusion of a male. However, regarding expected bystander intervention, models differed based on condition (exclusion of a male compared to exclusion of a female peer). Specifically, in the female exclusion condition, participants’ gender predicted equitable attitudes, which then predicted expected bystander intervention and ratings of acceptability. In the male exclusion condition, equitable attitudes predicted acceptability, which then predicted expected bystander intervention. These findings have important implications for understanding how to shape inclusive campus climates.
Open Access
Relations between parental attachment, empathy, and bystander help-seeking preference following peer aggression
(Springer, 2022-09) Knox, J. L.; Gönültaş, Seçil; Gibson, S. M.; Mulvey, K. L.
This study aimed to examine the complex relations between two known predictors of bystander decisions in bullying incidents—empathy and family contextual factors—and bystander help-seeking from two preferred choices (i.e., adults and peers). In particular, we examined the mediating role of cognitive and affective empathy on the relation between parental attachment and bystander help-seeking in 826 adolescents in the 6th and 9th grade (49.9% female) using four bullying/acts of aggression scenarios. Results indicated that affective, but not cognitive, empathy served as a partial mediator for the relationship in boys, suggesting that both empathy and the family context can play a role in bystander decisions to intervene. On the other hand, empathy did not serve as a mediator for girls, suggesting that girls do not need the added push of empathy in order to intervene in bullying situations. Results suggest emphasizing home-school collaboration for boys, in particular, in bullying prevention programs in order to maximize efforts of bystanders. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Open Access
What motivates adolescent bystanders to intervene when immigrant youth are bullied?
(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2023-01-12) Hitti, A.; Gönültaş, Seçil; Mulvey, K. L.
Pathways to bystander responses were examined in both generalized and bias-based bullying incidents involving immigrant-origin victims. Participants were 168 (Mage = 14.54, 57% female) adolescents of immigrant (37.5%) and nonimmigrant backgrounds, who responded to their likelihood of intervening on behalf of either an Arab or Latine victim. Models tested whether contact with immigrants and one's desires for social contact with immigrant-origin peers mediated the effects of individual (shared immigrant background, and discriminatory tendencies) and situational (inclusive peer norms) intergroup factors on active bystander responses. Findings indicated that desires for social contact reliably mediated effects across both victims; however, contact with immigrant peers was only associated with responses to Latine victims. Implications for how to promote bystander intervention are discussed.