Trait anxiety and bystander motivation to defend victims of school bullying
(2019) In Journal of Adolescence 77. p.1-10- Abstract
- Introduction: School-based bullying is an omnipresent problem, but is less frequent when bystanders are inclined to defend victims. This makes it important to focus on motivation to intervene in bullying. Methods: 202 students (Mage=16.44 years, 52% boys) from public Swedish high schools participated in a vignette experiment. Students were randomized to one of two vignettes (victim belonging to/not belonging to ingroup). Self-report measures of motivation to defend and trait anxiety were used. Results: Participants reported more autonomous motivation when the victim belonged to the ingroup and more extrinsic motivation when the victim did not belong to the ingroup. Trait anxiety interacted with the manipulation: bystanders high in anxiety... (More)
- Introduction: School-based bullying is an omnipresent problem, but is less frequent when bystanders are inclined to defend victims. This makes it important to focus on motivation to intervene in bullying. Methods: 202 students (Mage=16.44 years, 52% boys) from public Swedish high schools participated in a vignette experiment. Students were randomized to one of two vignettes (victim belonging to/not belonging to ingroup). Self-report measures of motivation to defend and trait anxiety were used. Results: Participants reported more autonomous motivation when the victim belonged to the ingroup and more extrinsic motivation when the victim did not belong to the ingroup. Trait anxiety interacted with the manipulation: bystanders high in anxiety reported low levels of autonomous motivation when the victim did not belong to the ingroup and low levels of extrinsic motivation when the victim belonged to the ingroup.
Conclusions: Findings suggest that anti-bullying-programs should focus on how defender motivation is influenced by the way in which victim ingroup status is perceived and address the bystander’s level of anxiety as this interacts with such perceptions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/78c30aa8-4774-4c0a-91af-63654a0f4eec
- author
- Jungert, Tomas LU and Perrin, Sean LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Adolescence, school bullying, bystanders, prosocial behavior, trait anxiety
- in
- Journal of Adolescence
- volume
- 77
- pages
- 1 - 10
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85072826830
- pmid:31593855
- ISSN
- 0140-1971
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.10.001
- project
- Promoting young people's motivation to defend victims in bullying situations
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 78c30aa8-4774-4c0a-91af-63654a0f4eec
- date added to LUP
- 2019-10-02 22:21:09
- date last changed
- 2023-04-10 01:24:14
@article{78c30aa8-4774-4c0a-91af-63654a0f4eec, abstract = {{Introduction: School-based bullying is an omnipresent problem, but is less frequent when bystanders are inclined to defend victims. This makes it important to focus on motivation to intervene in bullying. Methods: 202 students (Mage=16.44 years, 52% boys) from public Swedish high schools participated in a vignette experiment. Students were randomized to one of two vignettes (victim belonging to/not belonging to ingroup). Self-report measures of motivation to defend and trait anxiety were used. Results: Participants reported more autonomous motivation when the victim belonged to the ingroup and more extrinsic motivation when the victim did not belong to the ingroup. Trait anxiety interacted with the manipulation: bystanders high in anxiety reported low levels of autonomous motivation when the victim did not belong to the ingroup and low levels of extrinsic motivation when the victim belonged to the ingroup. <br/>Conclusions: Findings suggest that anti-bullying-programs should focus on how defender motivation is influenced by the way in which victim ingroup status is perceived and address the bystander’s level of anxiety as this interacts with such perceptions.}}, author = {{Jungert, Tomas and Perrin, Sean}}, issn = {{0140-1971}}, keywords = {{Adolescence; school bullying; bystanders; prosocial behavior; trait anxiety}}, language = {{eng}}, pages = {{1--10}}, publisher = {{Elsevier}}, series = {{Journal of Adolescence}}, title = {{Trait anxiety and bystander motivation to defend victims of school bullying}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.10.001}}, doi = {{10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.10.001}}, volume = {{77}}, year = {{2019}}, }