Bullies have feelings too The role of empathy
Bullies have feelings too: The role of empathy and self-esteem on bullying Jessica Peterson and Casey Dwyer Advisor: Ellen S. Cohn, Ph. D. Introduction Bullying • About 49% of children in grades 4 -12 reported being bullied by other students at school at least once during the past month 5 • Adolescents’ definition of bullying differs, with younger students describing the nature of bullying as mean, while older students display a heightened awareness of the feelings associated with being a victim of bullying 1 Empathy • Highly empathetic individuals are less likely to bully others 4 • Low empathy is related to violent bullying in males and to indirect bullying by females 2 Self-Esteem • Low levels of self-esteem are associated with bullying behavior, while high levels of self-esteem are associated with defending bulled victims 6 Hypotheses Results Discussion Figure 1. Standardized predictors of bullying behavior in males. Self-Esteem -. 106 2 R Bullying Empathy =. 029 F = 3. 743 p =. 025 . 189* Hypothesis 1: Self-esteem and empathy will be negatively correlated with bullying in males. Hypothesis 2: Self-esteem and empathy will be negatively correlated with bullying in females. Method Our data comes from the New Hampshire Youth Study (NHYS), a longitudinal study focusing on the reasons for adolescents’ rule violating behavior. Data presented was collected over the course of two years. • Spring of 2007 (T 2) • Spring of 2009 (T 3) Participants N = 672 61. 6% female, 38. 4% male Measures • Empathy (T 2) • Asked participants to rate how much they agree with a statement on a scale of 0 (strongly disagree) to 3 (strongly agree) • Other people’s sadness does not disturb me too much. • Mean = 1. 046 (SD =. 644) Cronbach’s alpha =. 739 • Self-esteem (T 2) • Asked participants to rate how much they agree with a statement on a scale of 0 (strongly disagree) to 3 (strongly agree) • Most people do not realize how easily they can hurt my feelings. • Mean = 2. 218 (SD =. 630) Cronbach’s alpha =. 777 • Bullying (T 3) • Asked participants to rate on a scale of 0 – 6+ • During the past 30 days, how many times did you call a kid from your school a bad name? • Mean =. 326 (SD =. 614) Cronbach’s alpha =. 856 Figure 2. Standardized predictors of bullying behavior in females. Self Esteem -. 121* Empathy References 2 R = Bullying . 033 F = 7. 112 p =. 001 Support for Our Hypothesis • Prior research has found that empathy was negatively associated with bullying, regardless of gender. However, we found that empathy is significantly positively correlated with bullying in males. • In females, lower self-reported levels of self-esteem were correlated with higher levels of bullying. • In females, although not significant, empathy was positively correlated with bullying. Implications • Consistent with prior research 6, we found that self-esteem was linked to higher levels of bullying and the correlation between high empathy and low levels of bullying 4 • Although not significant, the positive correlation between empathy and bullying seen in females contradicts previous research, which states that empathy was negatively associated with bullying 3 • These findings suggest the possible need to evaluate how empathy is utilized in males. While many assume that empathy is a pro-social trait, this suggests that this may not always be the case Limitations • The NHYS is a self-report survey, so participants are vulnerable to the self-report bias • The study was conducted in New Hampshire, which limits the diversity of the sample • The survey neglected to differentiate between cognitive and affective empathy, which past research has done Future Directions • Differentiate between cognitive and affective empathy • Study the reasons why people bully, get at the reasons behind why males higher in empathy tend to bully . 012 For more information: jlp 2007@wildcats. unh. edu, cmd 2021@wildcats. unh. edu 1 Byrne, H. , Dooley, B. , Fitzgerald, A. , & Dolphin, L. (2015). Adolescents’ definitions of bullying: The contribution of age, gender, and experience of bullying. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 31(3), 403 -418. doi: 10. 1007/ s 10212 -0150271 -8 2 Jolliffe, D. , & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Examining the relationship between low empathy and bullying. Aggressive Behavior, 32(6), 540 -550. doi: 10. 1002/ab. 20154 3 Mitsopoulou, E. , & Giovazolias, T. (2015). Personality traits, empathy and bullying behavior: A meta-analytic approach. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 21, 61 -72. doi: 10. 1016/j. avb. 2015. 01. 007 4 Noorden, T. H. , Haselager, G. J. , Cillessen, A. H. , & Bukowski, W. M. (2015). Empathy and involvement in bullying in children and adolescents: A systematic review. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(3), 637 -657. doi: 10. 1007 s 10964 -01356 5 S. (2013, September 13). Facts About Bullying. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from http: // www. stopbullying. gov/mfacts/index. html 6 Simon, J. B. , Nail, P. R. , Swindle, T. , Bihm, E. M. , & Joshi, K. (2016). Defensive egotism and self-esteem: A cross-cultural examination of the dynamics of bullying in middle school. Self and Identity, 16(3), 270 -297. doi: 10. 1080/15298868. 2016. 1232660
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