| Research has shown peer bystanders are present during most bullying episodes and may contribute to the derogation of victims and the cycle of violence. The current study examined the differential effects of peer bystander behavior on participants' perceptions and treatment of a victim of bullying. Several individual differences including prosocial attributes, tolerance for aggressive solutions to social conflict, and school climate were examined as moderators of the effect of bystander behavior on victim outcomes. Over 200 boys from two middle schools ranging in age from 10 to 14 were told they were going to play an Internet computer game with three other boys who were allegedly located at computer stations in a different school. Prior to playing the game, a bullying episode unfolded on a "web cam" waiting room video in which one child was bullied by another, and the third child behaved as the bystander. Bystander behavior was varied to include four conditions (Active, Passive, Complicit, Control-No Bullying). Each participant then played a game of Cyberball with the three video characters. Frequency, sequence, and latency of ball-throwing to each cyber player were recorded, and participants completed two surveys about their social preference and Belief in a Just World views of the victim. Prior to coming to the lab, boys also provided self-reports of prosocial behaviors, social perspective-taking, tendency to morally disengage, normative beliefs about bullying, personal history of bullying, and their respective school's climate.;Results did not support main effect hypotheses regarding direct bystander behavior. However, boys' tendency to morally disengage and their normative beliefs about aggression moderated the effect of bystander behavior on boys' response to the victim. These findings suggest that predicting peer responses to bullying involves a complex set of unique and combined individual and social factors. Implications for prevention efforts are discussed. |
