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Adolescents' willingness to help with peer victimisation in Taiwan: The role of individual and situation‐specific characteristics
Author(s) -
Ma TingLan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1002/ijop.12565
Subject(s) - victimisation , psychology , vignette , empathy , bystander effect , psychological intervention , developmental psychology , social psychology , clinical psychology , suicide prevention , poison control , medicine , environmental health , psychiatry
The purpose of this study is to evaluate adolescent bystanders' willingness to help and specific help responses as predicted by both individual characteristics (e.g., gender, empathy, victimisation experiences) and situation‐specific characteristics (i.e., bystander's relationship with the victim and the presence of another bystander). The study used an experimental vignette method with a sample of Taiwanese adolescents. Participants included 730 seventh graders (49% girls, mean age 12.8 years) attending one middle school in a southern city in Taiwan. Results show that both individual characteristics (e.g., gender, empathy) and a situation‐specific characteristic (i.e., the relationship a participant had with the victim) predicted adolescents' willingness to help. However, only individual characteristics predicted adolescents' specific help responses including telling the teacher, telling the bully to stop, and comforting the victims. Directions for future research and implications for interventions and prevention programs are discussed.