Agency and wellbeing of adolescent defenders in school bullying
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-9527-2019-1-2-110-116Keywords:
bystanders, bullying, agency, wellbeing, defenderAbstract
Witnesses play an important role in preventing bullying in schools. If more children become involved in defending a victim, bullying tends to decrease, and if bystanders support a bully, bullying becomes more intense (Salmivalli, Voeten, Poskiparta 2011). A variety of studies identify 3 main roles that those who witness bullying can play: bystanders, defenders and those who support a bully (Salmivalli 2014; Seo 2008). In this study we draw a distinction between the bystanders who just keep away from the bullying and victim sympathizers who sympathize with the victim but do not choose to get involved. This article is dedicated to the wellbeing and agency of defenders and sympathizers. Wellbeing was measured with Ryff’s six-factor questionnaire adapted into Russian by L. V. Zhukovskaya and E. G. Troshikhina. 6 wellbeing components were autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others and self-acceptance. Agency was measured with an Agency tool developed by E. N. Volkova and I. G. Seregina. Agency consists of 6 components: activity level, introspection, freedom of choice, uniqueness, understanding uniqueness of others and personal development. Witnesses’ role was identified with Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Study sample included 107 bullies (15 %), 206 victims (30 %) and 331 witnesses (48 %). Some respondents played more than one role in bullying: for example, victimwitness, bully-witness and bully-victim. 33 % of the witnesses were identified as victim sympathizers and 54 % were defenders. Significant predictors of defender role in regression analysis were environmental mastery (OR = 1.176, p = 0.035) and understanding their own uniqueness (OR = 1.214, p = 0.013). The results correspond to other studies suggesting high level of self-efficacy inherent to defenders in bullying situations.
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REFERENCES
Espelage, D., Green, H. D., Wasserman, S. (2007) Statistical analysis of friendship patterns and bullying behaviors among youth. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, iss. 118, рp. 61–75. DOI: 10.1002/cd.201 (In English)
Huitsing, G., Snijders, T., Van Duijn, M., Veenstra, R. (2014) Victims, bullies, and their defenders: A longitudinal study of the coevolution of positive and negative networks. Development and Psychopathology, vol. 26, sp. iss. 3, pp. 645–659. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579414000297 (In English)
Jeffrey, L. R. (2004) Bullying Bystanders. Prevention Researcher, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 7–8. (In English)
Jungert, T., Piroddi, B., Thornberg, R. (2016) Early adolescents’ motivations to defend victims in school bullying and their perceptions of student-teacher relationships: A self-determination theory approach. Journal of Adolescence, vol. 53, pp. 75–90. DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.09.001 (In English)
Knauf, R., Eschenbeck, H., Hock, M. (2018) Bystanders of bullying: Social-cognitive and affective reactions to school bullying and cyberbullying. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, vol. 12, no. 4, article 3. DOI: 10.5817/CP2018-4-3 (In English)
Oldenburg, B., Van Duijn, M., Veenstra, R. (2018) Defending one’s friends, not one’s enemies: A social network analysis of children’s defending, friendship, and dislike relationships using XPNet. PloS one, vol. 13, no. 5, article e0194323. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194323 (In English)
Padgett, S., Notar, C. E. (2013) Bystanders are the key to stopping bullying. Universal Journal of Educational Research, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 33–41. (In English)
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