Socio-psychological and personal characteristics of adolescents who witness bullying

Abstract

Introduction. Bullying witnesses are the most prevalent and yet the least researched group of adolescents involved in bullying. The objective of the current article is to summarise the results of the studies of psychological and personal characteristics of adolescent bullying witnesses. Materials and Methods. Summarising results of the theretical and experimental studies dedicated to psychological and personal characteristics of adolescent bullying witnesses.Results. Bullying witnesses are the most prevalent group, which makes bullying possible. There are four groups among witnesses: defenders of the victim, assistants of the bully, sympathizers of the victim and bystanders. These groups have specific social status, traumatic experience, emotional reactions, attitudes, perceptions, friendships and motivations. Defenders of the victims have high social status, psychological wellbeing and personal resources. Adolescents from other groups are more troubled or have traumatic experience, have less wellbeing and personal resources. These findings must be taken into account when developing preventon programs.Discussion and Conclusions. Nonconstructive behavior of the witnesses, as a key element of the bullying, must be understood for each bullying case. Prevention program must be aimed at changing nonproductive role positions of the witnesses into the active position of the victim defender. Increasing the number of active defending stops the bullying and prevents the bully from future attacks.

Keywords

• witnesses
• adolescents
• personal characteristics