Literature Review: Behavioural Responses of Student Bystanders in Situations of Bullying

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Bullying is a serious occurrence that is plaguing youth all over the globe. Bullying, a form of aggression, can be experienced in four forms: physical, verbal, social or cyber (Oh & Hazler, 2009; Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse & Neale, 2010). However, all bullying is composed of three specific concepts—causing their victims harm, possessing greater power then their victims and repetition (Oh & Hazler, 2009). Read into the definition of “bullying” and one would simply identify a bully and a victim yet they would likely fail to identify a key influence: bystanders. It is their impact on bullying that can create serious problems therefore understanding the bystander’s role is vital in trying to decrease the occurrence of bullying (Oh & Hazler, 2009). Although the articles of Insoo Oh and Hazler (2009) and Jessica Trach, Shelley Hymel, Terry Waterhouse and Ken Neale (2010) take a particular focus on bystanders in bullying situations, the information from Robert Thornberg’s (2007) study of school children bystanders in emergency situations is also constructive in understanding concepts of bullying.

One generally noted concept in all of the articles was the taxonomy used for bystanders. The authors utilized the four categorizations of bystanders, established by a previous researcher, in order to study predictors and behaviours of their actions. Bystanders can be grouped as assistants, reinforcers, outsiders or defenders (Oh & Hazler, 2009; Thornberg, 2007; Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse & Neale, 2010). Those who actively support bullying by maintaining the victim for the bully are called assistants (Oh & Hazler, 2009). Less directly involved, are the supporters of bullies who provide positive feedback thus establishing their role as a reinforce...

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...the established concentration on predicting bystander behaviour. Therefore, the unexplored area of positive and active prosocial actions of bystanders becomes an area of knowledge very much worth pursuing.

References

Oh, I., & Hazler, R. J. (2009). Contributions of personal and situational factors to bystanders' reactions to school bullying. School Psychology International, 30(3), 291-310. doi:10.1177/0143034309106499

Thornberg, R. (2007). A classmate in distress: Schoolchildren as bystanders and their reasons for how they act. Social Psychology of Education, 10(1), 5-28. doi:10.1007/s11218-006-9009-4

Trach, J., Hymel, S., Waterhouse, T., & Neale, K. (2010). Bystander responses to school bullying: A cross-sectional investigation of grade and sex differences. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 25(1), 114-130. doi:10.1177/0829573509357553

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