Does Bystanders’ Psychological Well-Being and Attribution towards Victims Matters in Helping a Bullying Victim?

Abstract

Previous studies shows that psychological well-being plays an important role towards pro social behavior, but it is unclear how bystanders' psychological well-being together with their attribution (the extent to which the victim was considered guilty of becoming a victim) influence their willingness to help in bullying situation. 1868 participants consisting of students and school completed a self-report measurement with bullying vignettes. High scores on psychological well-being and low score on attribution was found to be related to helping behavior. On the opposite, participants with low psychological well-being and high score on attribution tended to support the perpetrator. The findings of SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) analyses also demonstrated that moderation pattern of attribution on psychological well-being was evident only for supporting the perpetrator behavior and not for helping the victim. In other words, even at high levels of psychological well-being, bystanders tend to support a perpetrator when they attributed a victim as guilty for their condition. The implication of this study suggests the importance maintaining positive psychological well-being for individuals studying or working in schools and also the need to explain about bullying to all stake holders of the school.



Author Information
Frieda M. Mangunsong, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia
Ratna Djuwita, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia

Paper Information
Conference: ACP2016
Stream: Psychology and Education

This paper is part of the ACP2016 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window


Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Research

Posted by James Alexander Gordon