Factors influencing on willingness to intervene in bullying among middle school adolescents

Objectives

School violence is a significant global social issue that has serious negative impacts on the individuals and groups involved. Students who are victims of school violence are at a higher risk of experiencing loneliness, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, along with a decline in academic achievement. Furthermore, perpetrators may face an increased risk of externalizing problems, including behavioral issues, as well as internalizing problems such as depression and anxiety. This study aimed to investigate whether social relationships, self-esteem, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and empathy influence the willingness to intervene(WTI) in bullying among middle school adolescents.

Methods

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This was a cross sectional study of a sample including 757 second grade middle school adolescents(419 males and 338 females) in Gwang-ju metropolitan city. Information on social relationships such as peer and teacher relationships, self-esteem, anxiety/depression symptoms, empathy and WTI were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Subjects were classified into Low Bullying Intervention(LBI) group(≤5 points) and High Bullying Intervention(HBI) group(≥6 points) based on their WTI score. This study analyzed the factors affecting the ability to intervene in school violence using the following methods. First, the ability to intervene in school violence was divided into a subgroup and a highgroup, and each factor was compared using χ² and independent t-tests. Second, Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the correlation between the scores on school violence intervention ability and each factor. Finally, a three-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the relative influence of significant variables on school violence intervention ability in the single regression analysis

Results

**：**The HBI group was 319 subjects(42.1%), and LBI group was 438 subjects(57.9%). Compared to LBI group, HBI group scored significantly higher in peer relationships, teacher relationships, self-esteem, and empathy, while scoring significantly lower in anxiety/depression symptoms. WTI scores showed significant correlations with all variables. Specifically, positive correlations were observed in the order of self-esteem, friendships, men, teacher-student relationships, and empathy scores. Meanwhile, WTI scores showed negative correlations with depression and anxiety scores, exhibiting the highest correlation among all variables.Using hierarchical regression analyses, the anxiety/depression symptoms score, followed by empathy score, peer relationship score, were significant predictors regarding the WTI in bullying among variables.

Conclusions

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Our findings indicate that anxiety/depression symptoms, empathy and social relationships such as peer and teacher are associated with the WTI in bullying. This study is significant in that it identified factors related to the willingness to intervene in school violence among community adolescents in terms of social relationships, internal aspects such as self-esteem and empathy, and emotional aspects such as anxiety and depression. Furthermore, it is meaningful as foundational data for understanding the factors related to students’ willingness to intervene in school violence among measures to prevent school violence. In the future, specific subtypes of defender behavior must be investigated along with various related variables to enable active intervention in school violence. Furthermore, research is needed to evaluate the mediation and interactions of each factor and to elucidate causal relationships through follow-up assessments.

References

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