This study examined bystander behaviors in response to bullying across Italian and Singaporean students. It hypothesized that positive attitudes towards victims and perceived peer pressure for intervention would correlate with defending behaviors, while negative attitudes would correlate with passive behaviors. The study found defending behaviors were positively associated with anti-bullying attitudes and peer pressure for intervention in both countries. Attitudes were a stronger predictor of behaviors for Italian students, while peer pressure better predicted behaviors for Singaporean students. Younger students and males from Italy were more likely to defend. The findings suggest bystander responses are influenced by attitudes, peer norms, and may differ cross-culturally.

1. Bystanders’ Behaviour
in Response to Bullying
Research by: Tiziana Pozzoli, Rebecca P. Ang, and Gianluca Gini
Presentation by: Maira Shahid

2. Topic
• This study examined the role of attitudes
against bullying and perceived peer
pressure for intervention in explaining
defending and passive by standing
behaviours in bullying across a cross-
cultural group of participants.
• Bullying has been recognized a world
wide problem, with negative
consequences for children's health.
• Understanding why some kids step in
to stop bullying and why some stand by
and watch, or ignore the problem can
help us better understand the group
dynamics underlying bullying and
provide insightful information for
intervention programs.

3. Hypothesis
• If the participants had a positive attitude towards the victims, and
showed approval of others who act to stop bullying and expressed
intention to intervene would have a defending behaviour towards
bullying in both Italy and Singapore.
• Negative attitudes towards victims should be related to passive
bystanders’ lack of intervention. Kids who perceive bullying as funny,
and who consider victims weak and deserving of the punishment.
• Also the participants country moderated these associations so that
relation between attitudes and behaviour is stronger among Italian
participants compared with Singaporean participants.Whereas
Singaporean participants would show a strong relation between
perceived peer pressure and bystanders’ behaviour than Italian
participants.

4. Methods
Participants
• 1031 School age participants
• From Singapore and Italy
• Both Countries are different in
cultural dimensions, but similar
on other aspects such as quality
of life, child welfare etc…
• 601 Italian students
• 430 Singaporean students
• Average age 111/2 to 12 1/2
years old
• An even split between boys
and girls from Italy and
Singapore
• Sample included students
from a wide range of social
classes
*School principals, teachers and
parent consent was acquired

5. Measures
• Three types of tests were conducted, and all used a scaling system
• The study was conducted in group format in the participants’ school classrooms
during a full class period
• At the end questions about the study were answered
Methods

6. Methods
Measures
1. Behaviours During Bullying Episode:
• Three types of bullying methods were tested to measure defending and passive behaviours; Verbal,
Physical, and Relational
• Verbal- ‘If someone teases or threatens a classmate, I try to stop him/her’
• Physical- ‘I defend the classmates who are hit or attacked hard’
• Relational- ‘I try to help or comfort classmates who are isolated or excluded from the group’
• The participants then rated how often during the school year they had enacted the behaviour
described to them
• 1 (never) - 4 (almost always)

7. Methods
Measures
2. Attitudes Toward Bullying:
• Used Salmivalli and Voeten’s scale; composed of 10 statements towards bullying
• E.g., Joining in bullying is a wrong thing to do; Bullying may be fun sometimes, etc…)
• Participants then scored each statements using a 4 point scale
• 1 (strongly disagree) - 4 (strongly agree)
• The higher the score the more his/her attitudes are agains bullying and in favor of the
victim

8. Methods
Measures
3. Perceived Peer Pressure for Intervention
• Evaluates perceived peers’ expectations
regarding how the participant should
behave when he/she witnesses bullying
• The students were given a little intro
sentence: ‘is in my classroom someone
repeatedly bullies another classmate,
according to my classmates I should…’
• Then they were given 4 option:
1. Direct Intervention
2. Disregard
3. Adult Intervention
4. Withdrawal for self-protection
• They then rated to what extent their peers
wanted them to behave for each of the
options
• 1 (not at all) - 4 (extremely)
• A higher score meant a higher perceived
peer pressure for intervention

9. Results
• The questionnaire was reliable is the participants answered
at least 80 percent of the questions.
• 61 students were excluded from the sample
• Yes the hypothesis was supported
• In both countries, a negative correlation between defending
and passive by standing behaviour emerged. Perceived
peer pressure for intervention and attitudes against bullying
were positively associated with defending behaviour and
negatively associated with passive behaviour

10. Results
• As hypothesized in the Italian sample, anti-
bullying attitudes emerged as a positive correlate
of participants active defending behaviour where
as it was negatively associated with passive
behaviour.
• The same goes for the Singaporean participants
who showed a positive correlation between
defending behaviours and perceived peer
pressure.

11. Interpretation
• Younger students were significantly more likely to defend than
older participants
• Defending behaviours were more commonly reported in Italy than
in Singapore
• Italian boys defending behaviour was independent of attitudes
against bullying, whereas Italian girls were more influenced by
their attitudes in bullying situations
• Findings showed that defending behaviour was positively
predicted by participants perception of classmates expectations
for intervention, above and beyond the effects of the other
individual characteristics