Adolescent-Peer Relationship Roles in Adolescent Willingness to Intervene in Bullying

by | Oct 8, 2020 | 2020, Infant and Children's Health

Written by Angeline A. De Leon, Staff Writer. This study found that the quality of adolescent -peer relationships was significantly associated with adolescents’ higher level of self-confidence and an increased willingness to intervene in bullying.

young girlBullying refers to repeated unwanted, aggressive behavior and often involves a real or perceived imbalance of power 1. In school settings, bullying commonly takes the form of verbal (name calling, insults) or relational (manipulation, social isolation from peers) bullying 1,2 and almost always takes place in the presence of other witnesses 3. Research suggests that bystanders of bullying may remain passive for various reasons (fear, feelings of inadequacy, diffusion of responsibility) 4, but the active intervention of peers on behalf of the bullied victim is critically tied to the termination of bullying events, as well as the positive social adjustment of the victim 5. Moreover, the experience of witnessing a bullying event also negatively impacts the mental health and emotional wellbeing of bystanders themselves, causing them to feel co-victimized as well 6,7. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) posits that an individual’s sense of self-efficacy, defined as belief in one’s ability to succeed in a certain situation, is strongly influenced by the behaviors of primary socialization agents in their environment (family, peers, teachers) 8. Self-efficacy, in turn, influences how an individual may approach a given task, situation, or challenge 8. Research suggests that youths who share positive relationships with their family, teachers, and peers have a higher likelihood of improved social and behavioral outcomes 9. To determine whether the relationships shared with key social figures are tied to adolescents’ willingness to intervene in bullying situations, German researchers (2020) looked at the roles of parent-child relationships, teacher-student relationships, and bullying victimization in shaping students’ response to social conflict 10.

A total of 2,071 middle school students (aged 12 to 17 years, 48.8% female) were recruited from 24 schools in Germany. Students were presented with 2 bullying vignettes and asked to rate their willingness to intervene in a hypothetical bullying situation afterwards. A self-report measure was used to evaluate students’ self-efficacy in social conflicts (“I manage to cope well even with difficult classmates”), and the positivity of parent-child relationships and teacher-student relationships were rated. Bullying victimization (“Other students have spread lies and rumors about me…”) was also assessed. Mediation analyses were then carried out, controlling for socio-demographic variables.

Analyses revealed that better parent-child relationships (standardized β = 0.20, p < 0.001) and better teacher-student relationships (β = 0.35, p < 0.001) were predictive of higher self-efficacy in social conflicts, while higher levels of self-reported bullying victimization were predictive of lower self-efficacy (β = -0.20, p < 0.001). Higher self-efficacy in social conflicts predicted greater willingness to intervene in bullying situations (β = 0.39, p < 0.001), as did better teacher-student relationships (β = 0.13, p < 0.001) (but not parent-child relationships). Secondary analyses also showed that parent-child relationships (β = 0.08), teacher-student relationships (β = 0.14), and bullying victimization (β = -0.08) were all indirectly linked to greater willingness to intervene in bullying due to greater self-efficacy in social conflicts.

In the present study, researchers uncovered the direct and indirect associations between relationships shared with parents, teachers, and peers and the willingness of adolescents to intervene in social conflict. In line with SCT, the quality and nature of students’ proximate social relationships were found to directly contribute to students’ sense of self-efficacy and, in turn, their reported willingness to disrupt bullying behavior. Findings suggest that parents and teachers play a key role in strengthening self-efficacy beliefs and confirm a lower sense of self-efficacy as a consequence of experiencing bullying first-hand. As predicted, enhanced self-efficacy was associated with a greater willingness to intervene in bullying situations, with positive teacher-student relationships found to be similarly related.  In sum, findings denote the importance of focusing on the interconnected roles of social relationships and perceived self-efficacy in annihilating bullying behaviors at school. Potential limitations include the cross-sectional nature of the present study and the measurement of hypothetical vs. actual behavior in a bullying event. Future studies would also benefit from combining peer-reported accounts with self-reported responses.

Source: Wachs S, Gorzig A, Wright MF, et al. Associations among adolescents’ relationships with parents, peers, and teachers, self-efficacy, and willingness to intervene in bullying: a social cognitive approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17: 420. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17020420.

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Posted October 8, 2020.

Angeline A. De Leon, MA, graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010, completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a concentration in neuroscience. She received her master’s degree from The Ohio State University in 2013, where she studied clinical neuroscience within an integrative health program. Her specialized area of research involves the complementary use of neuroimaging and neuropsychology-based methodologies to examine how lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and meditation, can influence brain plasticity and enhance overall connectivity.

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