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Abstract

Bullying is the most common type of violence in American schools (Swearer & Doll, 2001), and the consequences can persist into adulthood, affecting school achievement, prosocial skills, and psychological well-being for both victims and bullies. The current study examined whether past experience with bullying affects how likely college students are to intervene when someone they know is bullied. 120 college students (50 males, 70 females) completed a questionnaire that assessed their past experience with physical and relational aggression. They then read a scenario that asked them to imagine someone was spreading vicious rumors about a member of their current campus group. Next, they decided whether they would intervene by contacting the aggressor, the victim, or both. Over 95% of participants reported some past experience as both aggressor and victim. Unexpectedly, males reported significantly more past experience as relational aggressors than females. Over half the participants said they would intervene by contacting both victim and bully. However, contrary to the hypothesis, past victimization experience did not increase the likelihood of intervening. In fact, past experience scores tended to be somewhat lower for those who intervened. The only significant past experience predictor was that those who chose not to intervene at all tended to have more experience as a bully and less as a victim. The findings provide additional evidence that exposure to bullying often includes experience as both aggressor and victim, and that this can complicate an understanding of how this experience affects future decisions to intervene.

Biography

Fushu Tan is a senior student in the Psychology department. Her major interests are Group Dynamics and Bullying Behavior. She is currently an honor student in psychology, and her project is about bullying and supporting behaviors. She really enjoys doing research, especially in social psychology. Her favorite activities are writing, pop dancing, eating, and cooking.