Stefanie Richters, Maor Shani, Lea Geyer, Maarten H W van Zalk
{"title":"Differential Effects of Friendship and School Norms on Adolescents' Defending in Cyberbullying Situations: A Randomized School-Based Experiment.","authors":"Stefanie Richters, Maor Shani, Lea Geyer, Maarten H W van Zalk","doi":"10.1007/s10964-025-02202-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>During adolescence, close friendships become increasingly important, yet whether norms within friendship groups may influence responses to cyberbullying more than norms from more distal reference groups such as schools remains untested. This preregistered experiment examined the effects of friendship and school pro-defending norms on adolescents' defending intentions and behaviors in response to hypothetical cyberbullying scenarios. Participants were 321 students from grades 5 to 10 in a German secondary school (55.45% female; M<sub>age</sub> = 12.66, SD<sub>age</sub> = 1.73), randomly assigned to a friendship norm (N = 105), school norm (N = 110), or control (N = 106) condition. Norm information was derived from previous data collection. Victim- and bully-oriented defending intentions and behaviors were significantly higher in the friendship norm condition compared to the control condition, while the school norm condition showed no significant effects. Neither norm condition influenced cyberbullying reporting and participation in an anti-bullying campaign. These findings demonstrate that friendship norms are effective in promoting defending in cyberbullying situations, suggesting that norm-based interventions may benefit from targeting such proximal reference groups that are aligned with adolescents' developmental needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":17624,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Youth and Adolescence","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Youth and Adolescence","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-025-02202-y","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
During adolescence, close friendships become increasingly important, yet whether norms within friendship groups may influence responses to cyberbullying more than norms from more distal reference groups such as schools remains untested. This preregistered experiment examined the effects of friendship and school pro-defending norms on adolescents' defending intentions and behaviors in response to hypothetical cyberbullying scenarios. Participants were 321 students from grades 5 to 10 in a German secondary school (55.45% female; Mage = 12.66, SDage = 1.73), randomly assigned to a friendship norm (N = 105), school norm (N = 110), or control (N = 106) condition. Norm information was derived from previous data collection. Victim- and bully-oriented defending intentions and behaviors were significantly higher in the friendship norm condition compared to the control condition, while the school norm condition showed no significant effects. Neither norm condition influenced cyberbullying reporting and participation in an anti-bullying campaign. These findings demonstrate that friendship norms are effective in promoting defending in cyberbullying situations, suggesting that norm-based interventions may benefit from targeting such proximal reference groups that are aligned with adolescents' developmental needs.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Youth and Adolescence provides a single, high-level medium of communication for psychologists, psychiatrists, biologists, criminologists, educators, and researchers in many other allied disciplines who address the subject of youth and adolescence. The journal publishes quantitative analyses, theoretical papers, and comprehensive review articles. The journal especially welcomes empirically rigorous papers that take policy implications seriously. Research need not have been designed to address policy needs, but manuscripts must address implications for the manner society formally (e.g., through laws, policies or regulations) or informally (e.g., through parents, peers, and social institutions) responds to the period of youth and adolescence.