New Approaches to Defender and Outsider Roles in School Bullying

Abstract

Abstract Using latent profile analysis, this study refined the traditional defender and outsider roles in bullying research and examined intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors associated with subtypes of roles. Participants were 1,373 adolescents (40% girls, Mage: 14 years) from 54 classrooms in six middle schools. The results revealed that defenders could be classified as either assertive or comforting and that outsiders could be classified as either sympathetic or indifferent. These different profiles were explained by affective empathy, antibullying attitudes, self-efficacy, and responsibility to intervene at the intrapersonal level; popularity and peer preference at the interpersonal level; and peers’ antibullying attitudes and expectations at the contextual level. Implications for studying participant roles in bullying research and for advancing antibullying interventions were discussed.

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