Bullying, defending, and outsider behaviors: The moderating role of social status and gender in their relationship with empathy

The aim of the present study was to examine whether the effect of empathy on the role children play in bullying situations, as either bullies, defenders or outsiders, was moderated by children's social status within their classroom, and whether this moderation was gender dependent. For this pur...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Lucas-Molina, B. [0000-0003-4370-4799], Pérez-Albéniz, A. [0000-0002-7182-060X], Fonseca-Pedrero, E. [0000-0001-7453-5225], Giménez-Dasí, M.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universidad de La Rioja (UR)
Repositorio:RIUR. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Rioja
OAI Identifier:oai:portal.dialnet.es:doc/5bbc690bb750603269e8140f
Acceso en línea:https://investigacion.unirioja.es/documentos/5bbc690bb750603269e8140f
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Children's behavior in bullying situations
Empathy
Gender
Moderation
Primary school
Sociometric rating
Descripción
Sumario:The aim of the present study was to examine whether the effect of empathy on the role children play in bullying situations, as either bullies, defenders or outsiders, was moderated by children's social status within their classroom, and whether this moderation was gender dependent. For this purpose, we used a representative sample of 2,050 Spanish primary school children (50.80% girls) from grades 3-6 (Mage = 9.80 years; SD = 1.24), recruited from 27 primary schools. Results showed that the effect of empathy on bullying behavior was moderated by the sociometric rating only in girls. Both empathy and social rating had an effect on defending behavior. However, neither the children's sociometric rating nor their gender moderated the relationship between empathy and defending and outsider behaviors. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions designed to prevent bullying in school settings. © 2018 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.