Factors Influencing Interventions on Behalf of Victims of Bullying

While both outsiders and defenders have antibullying attitudes, only defenders have the reputation to defend victims. However, outsiders—despite their reputation of avoiding involvement in bullying—do receive some defender nominations and thus defend victims at least occasionally. This study investigated the relationship between these behavioral reputations and social-cognitive antecedents of students’ provictim intervention decision: Is provictim intervention related to a cost-reward analysis or to an analysis based on the presence and reactions of others? A sample of 489 Dutch early adolescents (Formula: see text age = 11.5 years) was presented a scenario in which they were to imagine being witness to victimization. Through a counterfactual thinking item procedure, the relationships between students’ reputations and social cognitions about antecedents of provictim intervention were investigated. Distress awareness and anticipated guilt and shame for not helping victims positively predicted defender behavior. Practical implications with regard to promoting defender behavior in outsiders are discussed.