Poster #95 - Bystanders in school bullying: The moderating effects of empathy on the relation of temperamental affiliation to bystander behavior

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Up to 20% of school aged children experience bullying nationwide (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019), and the adverse effects can be lifelong. When examining bullying in school-aged children, the focus is often on the bullies and victims; however, examining the bystander role is crucial to breaking the vicious cycle of bullying. Bystanders have been found to intervene when victims are their friends (Burn, 2009; Crowther, 2008). Identifying other characteristics related to bystander behavior, such as temperamental affiliation and empathy, is key to interventions designed to decrease bullying. Children high in temperamental affiliation value closeness with others, and affiliation has been linked to empathic responses (Seyfarth & Cheney, 2013). Even though children’s empathy is widely known as a predictor of prosocial behavior in bullying (Gini et al., 2008), empathy is a multifaceted construct. Two of the empathy constructs, which are personal distress and empathic concern, relate to different social behaviors (Bateson & Shaw, 1991). Empathic concern represents more genuine feelings of warmth, sympathy, and other oriented feelings, whereas personal distress involves self-focused, negative emotional reactions to others’ distress (Davis, 1980). Because affiliation is associated with empathic responses of others (Seyfarth & Cheney, 2013) and empathic concern and personal distress relate to different prosocial behaviors (Eisenberg, 2020), the effects of children’s affiliation on their bystander behavior might vary depending on levels of different empathy constructs. Therefore, we examined children’s personal distress and emphatic concern as moderators of the association of temperamental affiliation to bystander behavior.

Children (n=165) aged 10-12 years old (mean age 10.98 years, SD=.79) across the United States completed an online survey. Questionnaires included the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ-R; Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992), a modified version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for children in middle childhood (IRI; Livatvack-Miller et al., 1997), and the Types of the Conformity Groups in Bullying (TCGB; Kim, 2003).

Moderation of personal distress and empathic concern were tested in two separate hierarchical regression analyses. In the model with personal distress as the moderator, the interaction between affiliation and personal distress was significant. Affiliation was positively related to bystander behavior for high levels of personal distress but not for low levels (Figure 1a). In the model with empathic concern as the moderator, the interaction between affiliation and empathic concern was also significant. Affiliation was positively related to bystander behavior for low levels of empathic concern but not for high levels (Figure 1b).

Bystander behavior was rated higher by children who also rated personal distress and affiliation as high and by children who had low empathic concern and high affiliation. These results indicate that relations among these constructs are complex. Affiliation in our study was measured as a temperamental characteristic; results may be different if affiliation was measured within specific bullying situations with children they know, as opposed to measuring affiliation as a more global temperamental trait. Continued work examining the characteristics associated with bystander roles could allow for development of specific, effective guidelines to promote children’s abilities to stand up for victims.

Authors

• Eunkyung Shin, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia L. Smith, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University