Socio-Cognitive Processes and Peer-Network Influences in Defending and Bystanding

• In Event: Social Network Approaches to Understanding Peer Relationships and Positive Behaviors

Abstract

While most bystanders recognize that bullying is wrong and that they would like to help the victims, at the same time many victims remain nevertheless undefended (Salmivalli, 2010). This suggests the presence of a defending-bystanding paradox that is not well understood: Why do some defend, while others do not? While peer-group processes are evident in defending and bystanding choices, the critical role of socio-cognitive processes is often overlooked. Thus, an important gap in the literature that still exists is a limited understanding of peer-group processes in light of social cognitions of defending and bystanding. Based on the theory, it would be expected that not only are social cognitions related to the self, but also to socialization processes (Bandura, 1977), which could be sharing of information about one’s (in)abilities concerning defending of victims within the peer group. To address this gap in the literature, this study examines the relation between socialization and (social cognitions of) defending and bystanding, expecting that friends would be influential in shaping each other’s behaviors and social cognitions.

A total of 1354 adolescents in Grades 7‒10 in nine public high schools with 67 classrooms (81.4% Italian; 51.3% boys) in northern Italy participated at two waves (W) about 6 months apart within one school year. At each W, participants nominated their friends in their classroom (unlimited same-sex and cross-sex nominations allowed). The validated students’ Behavior during Bullying Episodes Scale (Pozzoli et al., 2016) measured defending and bystanding on a 5-point scale (1=Never, 5=Almost always). A 9-item scale adapted from Barchia and Bussey (2011) measured self-efficacy (e.g., “How easy is it for you to console a classmate who has been hit, kicked or punched?”) on a 6-point scale (1=Not at all, 6=Very much). Finally, a recently developed scale for Italian adolescents measured moral distress (Gini et al., 2020) containing 7 items (e.g., “I felt very bad because I should have helped the student but I couldn’t” α = 0.75 at W1 and 0.77 at W2) on a 5-point scale (1=Completely untrue, 5=Completely true). Longitudinal social network analyses were done using Stochastic Actor-Oriented Modeling in RSiena (Snijders et al., 2010).

In line with the expectations, findings showed that friends can indeed influence students’ defending and bystanding behaviors as well as their personal beliefs and emotions concerning these two behaviors, as friends’ defending and bystanding as well as their levels of self-efficacy and moral distress became more similar or were more likely to remain similar to each other over time. Moreover, self-efficacy and moral distress both promote defending behavior. Taking further into account that these are socialized within friend networks, then this indicates that adolescents are supported into defending. When there are friends from whom adolescents can learn and grow, and share their concerns, they may face these challenges together as friends experience the same things. Together, these findings provide evidence that socio-cognitive and peer-network processes are intertwined, jointly determining defending and bystanding.

Authors

• Johannes Ashwin Rambaran, Universiteit Utrecht
  Presenting Author

• Tiziana Pozzoli, University of Padova

• Gianluca Gini, University of Padova