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Associations between individual and collective efficacy beliefs and students' bystander behavior
Author(s) -
Sjögren Björn,
Thornberg Robert,
Wänström Linda,
Gini Gianluca
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/pits.22412
Subject(s) - collective efficacy , psychology , bystander effect , intervention (counseling) , self efficacy , peer victimization , social psychology , multilevel model , developmental psychology , peer group , suicide prevention , clinical psychology , poison control , medicine , environmental health , machine learning , psychiatry , computer science
This study examined whether defending and passive bystanding during peer victimization episodes were associated with individual‐ and classroom‐level efficacy to stop peer victimization. Self‐report survey data were analyzed from 1,467 Swedish fourth‐grade students (mean age = 10.55) from 100 classrooms in 63 schools. Multilevel analyses revealed that, when witnessing peer victimization, students more often defended victims if they were high in defender self‐efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms high in collective efficacy. In contrast, students were more likely to remain passive if they were low in defender self‐efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms low in collective efficacy. Taken together, our findings suggest that efficacy beliefs both at the individual and at the classroom level contribute to explaining variability in students' bystander behaviors, which has potential implications for prevention and intervention work.