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Tara Fornuto
Email: tfornuto1@gaels.iona.edu
Gender and Personality Effects on Bullying Perception
and Bystander Intervention
Tara A. Fornuto
Department of Psychology, Iona College
98.4% (n=62) of participants had reported
witnessing bullying before. 71% (n=62) of
participants reported being bullied before. In
addition, 29% (n=62) of participants stated
that they had been a bully before.
The mean agreeableness score for participants
was 40.45 (SD= 6.75). The lowest score was
19 and the highest score was 50.
There was no significant interaction between
gender and bullying condition or main effect
of gender., p>.05.
There is a significant main effect of condition
on bullying perception, F(4, 240)=41.08,
p=.00, and willingness to intervene
F(4,240)=45.39, p=.00
There is a significant interaction between
agreeableness and bullying condition on
willingness to intervene F(4,240)=3.29, p=.00.
There is a significant correlation between
bullying perception and willingness to
intervene, p<.05.
There has been several studies on bullying
between bullies and victims, however not
much research has been done on
bystanders. This study found a positive
correlation between whether someone
perceives an act as bullying and whether or
not they will intervene. Also, this study
found a significant main effect of bullying
conditions on perception of bullying and
willingness to intervene along with an
interaction of agreeableness and bullying
condition on willingness to intervene.
However this study is limited in its small
sample size and heavy self-report bias.
Further studies should perhaps use
confederates to eliminate self report bias
and put a heavier emphasis on bystanders
over victims.
PARTICIPANTS
•The current study had 62 participants
•66.1% were females (n=62) and 33.9% were males
(n=62).
•The minimum age of participants was 18 and the
maximum age was 72. The mean age of participants
was 21.26 (SD= 6.67).
•The racial makeup of participants was 77.4% White
(n=62), 4.8% Black (n=62), 12.9% Hispanic or Latino,
3.2% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1.6% Other.
As of 2013, about 21.5% of
students aged 12-18 reported being
bullied in some way including
physical harm, being coerced into
activities they did not want to do,
and having their property
destroyed, and about 6.9% of
students reported being cyber
bullied including online harassment
via email or social media (U.S.
Department of Education, 2015)
Most research on bullying focuses
mainly on bullies and victims rather
than bystanders even though
(Espelage & Swearer, 2003).
However, recently, research has
shown that different scenarios can
cause bystanders to react differently
to situations along with personality
traits and gender of the bystanders
(Howard, Landau, & Pryor, 2014).
The purpose of this study is to
examine the factors that contribute
to the perception of whether an act
is considered bullying, and what
motivates bystanders to intervene.
The study tested the following
hypotheses:
1. There is an interaction
between agreeableness and bullying
condition on and willingness to
intervene.
2. There is an interaction
between gender and bullying
condition on bullying perception .
3. There is a significant main
effect of bullying condition on
bullying perception.
INTRODUCTION
1. Espelage, D. L., & Swearer, S. M. (2003). Research on School
Bullying and Victimization: What Have We Learned and Where Do
We Go From Here?. School Psychology Review, 32(3), 365-383.
2. Howard, A. M., Landau, S., & Pryor, J. B. (2014). Peer bystanders to
bullying: Who wants to play with the victim?. Journal Of Abnormal
Child Psychology, 42(2), 265-276.
3. U.S. Department of Education. (2015). Student reports of bullying
and cyber-bullying: Results from the 2013 School Crime Supplement
to the National Crime Victimization Survey [Data set]. Retrieved
from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015056.pdf
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
Figure 1. There is a significant correlation between total
intervention score and total perception score, p<.05.
Figure 2. While there was no significant interaction of Agreeableness
and Bullying condition there was a significant main effect of bullying
condition.
Figure 3. There is a significant interaction of agreeableness and bullying
condition on willingness to intervene along with a significant main effect of
condition.
CONTACT
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RESOLUTION
LOGO
METHODS
RESULTS
MATERIALS AND PROCEEDURE
Participants were asked questions about demographics
and bullying experience along with:
•An agreeableness scale
•A survey of different bullying vignettes
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Verbal Sibling Control Physical Cyber
PerceptionScore
Bullying Condition
Interaction of Agreeableness Score and Bullying Condition on Bullying
Perception
Low
High
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Verbal Sibling Control Physical Cyber
InterventionScore
Bullying Condition
Interaction of Agreeableness and Bullying Condition on Willingness to
Intervene
Low
High
* * *
*= signifcantly different from the control.
*
*= significant interaction.