Peer Support: A Strategy to Help Bystanders Challenge School Bullying

In this article, the authors first discuss the nature of peer support and some of the ways in which it has evolved over time, particularly in the UK. Under the umbrella of peer support they include activities such as befriending, peer counselling, conflict resolution or mediation and intervening in bullying situations. Secondly, they describe research studies of peer support and discuss their relevance to bystander behaviour. Thirdly, they draw some conclusions that relate to the wider context of the developing role of peer support in schools today. These include the benefits to peer supporters and the key processes of flexible monitoring and clear observation of the needs of the potential users.     

Introduction to The International Bystander Project

Recent research into bullying in schools has focused upon the social context in which bullying commonly takes place and the roles taken by student bystanders observing the bullying. This article describes a methodology that has been developed, employing a video presentation and a related questionnaire, and applied in a number of countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, England, Israel, Italy and South Africa. This approach was utilized to examine reported bystander behaviour of schoolchildren witnessing bullying at school and to identify factors that may account for positive and negative responses of bystanders in both upper primary and lower secondary levels of schooling.     

关注校园暴力的旁观者

旁观者是指某起事件的知情者、目睹者及干预者,根据其行为类型可以分为四类：协同欺负者、煽风点火者、置身事外者和保护者.旁观者的行为受到四个因素的影响：旁观者效应,与受害者、施暴者的关系,社会规则以及自我效能感.而对于旁观者校级不作为的行为,亲社会反应五步模型和计划行动理论分别给出了理论的解释.发挥旁观者在校园暴力干预中的积极作用,需要评估他们的行为、建立明确的干预规则与社会期望,并建立保护机制.     

Cyberbullying bystanders and moral engagement: a psychosocial analysis for pastoral care

One of the new challenges facing pastoral care in schools is dealing with the rapid growth of cyberbullying by school-aged children. Within digital cyberspace, cyberbullies are finding more opportunities to express their aggression towards others as social networks become technologically more sophisticated. An important feature of cyberbullying is the extent to which hostile messages can go viral, in the sense that they are seen and then forwarded to others many times over. This paper considers psychosocial aspects of why cyberbullying messages can go viral, and what can be done to reduce this phenomenon. This paper focuses on the role of the hostile cyberbullying bystander (viz. the person who receives and then forwards to others a cyberbullying message). Finally, we develop intervention strategies based on pastoral care, which may be effective in inhibiting hostile cyberbullying bystander behaviour.     

Counseling and Climate Change as Treatment Modalities for Bullying in School

Individual, group, and family counseling are invariably included in bullying prevention programs and strategies. Nevertheless, if bullying is treated exclusively as a problem between bullies and victims or as a family problem, counseling efforts will have limited impact. Counseling strategies must be articulated within a systemic approach to bullying in schools. In particular, the roles that students and adults play in actively or passively reinforcing bullying behavior must be addressed through school-wide and family efforts to change the norms and climate with respect to bullying. The pertinent literature is reviewed and steps to implement a systemic prevention strategy are outlined.     

Teaching Pupils to Negotiate

There has long been a potential tension between advocates of ‘behavioural approaches’ and advocates of ‘counselling approaches’, particularly in relation to work with pupils with special needs. The appeal of the cognitive behavioural approach described in this paper is that it integrates both the cognitive (counselling) and behavioural strategies. Thus the effectiveness of each approach can be used to enhance the effectiveness of the other. The writer argues that this leads to a more effective intervention than either approach used on its own. It also moves away from an almost total emphasis on the environmental determinants of behaviour towards a model which gives due weight to the feelings and thoughts of the pupils.     

On standby? A comparison of online and offline witnesses to bullying and their bystander behaviour

Given their ubiquitous presence as witnesses to school-yard bullying, the role of the ‘bystander’ has been studied extensively. The prevalence and behaviour of bystanders to cyberbullying, however, is less understood. In an anonymous, school-based questionnaire, 716 secondary school students from South-East Queensland reported whether they had witnessed traditional and/or cyberbullying, and how they responded to each type. Overlap in bystander roles between online and offline environments was examined, as was their relationship to age and gender. Students who witnessed traditional bullying were more likely to have witnessed cyberbullying. Bystanders’ behaviour was sometimes similar in both contexts of traditional and cyberbullying, mainly if they were outsiders but half of the 256 students who reported witnessing both traditional and cyberbullying, acted in different roles across the two environments. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of previous research on cyberbullying and traditional-bystanders. Future research should further explore the role of bystanders online, including examining whether known predictors of traditional-bystander behaviour similarly predict cyber-bystander behaviour.     

Exploring the impact of bullying on young bystanders

This study aimed to explore peer bullying events in schools by using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to consider the experiences of young bystanders: the perceptions and understandings of students who had witnessed bullying. Participants were aged 12–13 and attended two neighbouring secondary schools in the UK. Four themes were generated: the power and limits of language in bullying incidents; the power of moral frameworks; the presence of dynamic social systems, both inside and outside peer groups; and the psychological consequences of being a bystander. Implications of the research are discussed, for the practice of school staff and for educational psychologists.     

Portraying monsters: framing school bullying through a macro lens

This article critically considers the discourse on school bullying through the conceptual framework of lenses and argues that a macro lens has been utilised by school bullying researchers to bring into focus the characteristics of the individuals involved and the types of actions used. By considering earlier understandings of bullying, the article illustrates how this macro lens has become a metalens through which school bullying is understood. This has had implications for how bullying is understood and addressed, as well as for how vast numbers of school-aged children are perceived and treated. The article argues that the macro lens needs to be replaced with a wide-angle lens, so as to bring the social, institutional and societal contexts into view.