We Need a Village: School Connectedness Empowers Students to Move Beyond Bystanding Under an Anti-Bullying Climate.

Abstract

Bullying is a group phenomenon, and bystanders play an important role in either facilitating or inhibiting bullying. However, knowledge is still lacking regarding factors, especially contextual ones, which contribute to positive bystander behaviors. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the associations between school connectedness and willingness to intervene within the context of anti-bullying climate, using a three-year, four-wave longitudinal design (a half-year interval between Time 1 and Time 2, and one-year intervals between subsequent waves). Data were collected from 4718 adolescents (Mage = 11.22, SD = 0.45 at Time 1; 41% female, 44.6% male; 26.3% Latina/o, 20.6% Black, 19.1% White) across 36 middle schools in the United States. After controlling background variables, intervention effect, and previous victimization, the findings showed that, at the between-person level, both contextual factors (i.e., anti-bullying climate and school connectedness) were positively related to students' willingness to intervene in bullying; in addition, school connectedness was related to willingness to intervene bidirectionally at the within-person level. Gender was not a moderator of reciprocal relations. Overall, this study highlights the role of contextual factors in empowering bystanders and promoting positive bystander behaviors, which provides guidance for bullying prevention and interventions. The whole school needs to work collaboratively in creating and sustaining a safe, caring, and supportive school environment, which may have a great benefit in empowering bystanders to reduce bullying and facilitating positive development in the long term.