Elsevier

Journal of School Psychology

Volume 79, April 2020, Pages 31-42
Journal of School Psychology

Dimensions of empathy and bystander intervention in bullying in elementary school☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2020.03.001Get rights and content

Abstract

The current study investigated associations among cognitive empathy, affective empathy, internalizing problems, and the five steps of the bystander intervention model (notice bullying events, interpret as an event requiring intervention, accept responsibility for intervening, know how to intervene, and act). Participants included 336 fourth and fifth grade students (58.9% boys) at a school in the Midwest region of the United States. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that greater cognitive empathy was related to noticing bullying events, accepting responsibility to intervene, and knowing how to intervene. Affective empathy was significantly related to the actual act of intervention. Further, significant interactions revealed that affective empathy was positively associated with interpreting bullying as an event that required intervention at low and moderate levels of internalizing problems, but not at high levels of internalizing problems. Overall these findings underscore the need to examine the decision to intervene as the culmination of a series of steps as outlined in the bystander intervention model, with each step potentially influenced by a unique set of precursors.

Section snippets

Bullying and the bystander intervention model

Bullying is a widespread, serious problem in schools at all age levels throughout the world (Gini et al., 2008; Nickerson, Aloe, Livingston, & Feeley, 2014; Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, Ostreman, & Kaukianien, 1996). Bullying has negative effects on not only the victims, but also bullies and bystanders (Padgett & Notar, 2013; Salmivalli, 2010; Werth, Nickerson, Aloe, & Swearer, 2015). Salmivalli et al. (1996) found that only 20–30% of students participate in bullying as the bully or the

Participants

Participants included 336 fourth- and fifth-grade students from an elementary school in the Midwest. There were 198 boys (58.9%) and 138 girls (41.1%), including 165 fourth-graders (49.1%) and 171 fifth-graders (50.9%). Eleven students (3.27%) were removed from the initial sample of 336 students due to them having an entire measure without responses. Students at the school are 84.6% White, 5.7% Black, 3.8% Hispanic, 1.4% Asian, and 4.1% of students report more than one race. Fifty-three percent

Results

Table 1 provides means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among all variables. Cognitive Empathy was significantly and positively correlated with all steps of the bystander model, Affective Empathy was significantly and positively correlated with all steps with the exception of Notice, and Internalizing Problems was significantly and positively correlated with Cognitive Empathy, Affective Empathy, Notice, and Intervene.

Discussion

Few studies have examined how cognitive and affective empathy are related to the five steps of bystander intervention. Previous studies have found that affective empathy is more closely associated with defending behavior than cognitive empathy (Caravita et al., 2009; Pöyhönen et al., 2010; van Noorden et al., 2014), but intervening is associated with several steps that may impact actual intervention. Separating out both the dimensions of empathy as well as the stages of bystander intervention

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    ☆

    This article is part of the special issue Bystanders in Bullying and Peer Victimization; Edited by Dr. Lyndsay Jenkins and Dr. Dr. Wendy Troop-Gordon

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