The aim of our study was to explore students' bystander roles in peer bullying considering the interaction between their individual and contextual characteristics. We included social status goals (popularity, social preference and social insecurity), moral disengagement and peer support as key variables for differentiating bystander behaviour. Our…

In the field of critical bullying studies, norms and normality have been used to explain bullying in a manner that challenges the mainstream conceptualising of bullying. This study concentrates in a more detailed way on how normality and not-normality are connected to bullying and how the students define not-normality as a reason for bullying. I…

Frequent exposure to victimization by peers is related to greater psychological problems. It is often assumed that peer victimization is associated with fewer psychological problems in classrooms where defending victims of bullying is common (i.e., a norm). The few studies testing this claim have been cross-sectional and have produced mixed…

The impact of aggressive humor on workplace dynamics has been extensively examined; however, its implications for university students remain underexplored. Drawing on frustration--aggression theory, this study aims to uncover the consequences of peer-aggressive humor and its relationship with cyberbullying behavior. We employed a 2 (peer…

Gratitude is associated with increased social integration, which may counter the loneliness stemming from repeated peer victimization. The gratitude youth feel after different types of bystander action may depend on which behaviors are most congruent with personal beliefs. Face and honor cultures provide social norms for expectations and…

Social norms are vital for the functioning of adolescent peer groups; they can protect the well-being of groups and individual members, often by deterring harmful behaviors, such as aggression, through enforcement mechanisms like peer victimization; in adolescent peer groups, those who violate aggression norms are often subject to victimization.…

There is a growing interest in the factors influencing bystanders' interventions in school-bullying. However, perceived social norms, beliefs about what others do (perceived descriptive norms), and what others think one should do (perceived injunctive norms) still require attention. The aim of this study was to investigate whether students…

This study examines the interplay between individual characteristics (social status, provictim attitudes, and family messages about conflict resolution) and classroom descriptive and injunctive norms (peer victimization behaviors and bullying-related beliefs, respectively) in explaining defending behavior. For this purpose, we used a…

Background: Although an ecological perspective suggests the importance of multiple levels of intervention, most bullying research has emphasized individual- and school-focused strategies. This study investigated community and family factors that influence school efforts to reduce odds of group bullying behavior and victimization. Methods: We used…

This study examines the association between moral disengagement and cyberbullying using a measure of moral disengagement tailored to cyberbullying. It also examines adolescents' self-beliefs in their competence to engage in cyberbullying (cyberbullying self-efficacy beliefs) and how these beliefs may moderate the relation between moral…

In an attempt to explicate how cultural norms within a school could impact bullying, the current study assessed potential mediators of the relationship between teacher beliefs about bullying and actual peer victimization and inclinations of students to intervene when they witness bullying. Participants were 340 third through eighth graders and 66…

Relational forms of aggression are known to increase during the middle school years. To date, the majority of efficacy studies of elementary school-based programs have focused on the reduction of physical and direct verbal aggression, to the exclusion of effects on relational aggression. "Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program" is one…