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Personal characteristics and contextual factors that determine “helping,” “joining in,” and “doing nothing” when witnessing cyberbullying
Author(s) -
Van Cleemput Katrien,
Vandebosch Heidi,
Pabian Sara
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.21534
Subject(s) - empathy , psychology , disengagement theory , nothing , flemish , poison control , social psychology , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , suicide prevention , anxiety , developmental psychology , occupational safety and health , medicine , medical emergency , psychiatry , gerontology , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , pathology , history
In this article, we investigated several determinants of bystanders' reactive behaviors when confronted with cyberbullying using self‐reported data from 2,333 Flemish 9–16 year olds. Structural equation modeling showed that adolescents that had joined in on the cyberbullying were older, had lower levels of empathy and were more likely to have been involved in cyberbullying or traditional bullying as perpetrators. Adolescents who had helped the victim were younger, had higher levels of empathy and were more likely to have been a victim of cyberbullying or traditional bullying in the past months. Adolescents that did nothing when they witnessed cyberbullying, were also older, showed lower levels of empathy and were less likely to have been a victim of traditional bullying. Social anxiety was not related to joining in, helping and remaining passive. In the second part of the analysis, we found that bystanders' passive behavior could be explained in more detail by moral disengagement theory and other contextual factors. In the discussion, the implications of the findings for research on cyberbullying are addressed. Aggr. Behav. 40:383–396, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.