Empowering Peers to Reduce Bullying and Sexual Harassment Through Bystander Intervention

• In Event: What Is School Safety, and Who Gets to Have It? An Interdisciplinary Conversation

Abstract

Objective. The goal of this research is to examine approaches to reducing bullying and sexual harassment in high school by changing social norms and increasing bystander intervention skills.

Theoretical Framework. Bullying and sexual harassment are social events implicitly and explicitly supported by peers, with most who observe these behaviors not intervening to help. Latané and Darley’s (1970) bystander intervention model outlines five sequential decisions that influence the likelihood that a person will intervene: (1) notice the event, (2) interpret the event as an emergency that requires help, (3) accept responsibility for intervening, (4) know how to intervene or provide help, and (5) implement intervention decisions. In order to encourage bystander intervention, it may help to shift social norms so that adolescents have more accurate perceptions of their peers’ attitudes toward bullying and sexual harassment and explicitly teach the skills of intervening.

Methods and Data. Through an iterative pilot study, we implemented NAB IT! (Norms and Bystander Intervention Training) with students in two different high schools, collecting pre- and post-data and conducting focus groups. Quantitative measures included self-reports of knowledge of bullying and or bystander intervention strategies, and greater confidence in intervening in bullying and sexual harassment (Student-Advocates Pre-and Post Scale [SAPPS]; Midgett et al., 2015), bystander intervention in bullying and sexual harassment (Nickerson et al., 2014), and personal and perceived peer norms regarding bullying and sexual harassment (Nickerson et al., 2014).

Results. Students who received the 5-hour bystander intervention training showed several significant changes from pre-test to post-test, including greater knowledge and more confidence in intervening in bullying and sexual harassment (p<.001), an increased likelihood of intervening, supporting the victim, and reporting to adults when they saw bullying or sexual harassment (p <.001), and growth in bystander intervention (p < .00). The social norms campaign did not lead to significant changes for students overall in terms of changing how they perceived their peers’ attitudes, although White students and those who found the campaign more believable and acceptable were more likely to change their perceptions of peers to be more accurate and positive. Focus groups revealed that students thought learning these skills was important and relevant, but also questioned the believability of some of the social norms messaging.

Significance. Most bullying prevention approaches are not successful with high school students, and sexual harassment is often not a focus in secondary schools, despite the prevalence of these issues. Explicitly teaching students how to identify and intervene in these challenging situations may hold promise for reducing these forms of violence.

Author

• Amanda B. Nickerson, University at Buffalo - SUNY