Bystanders in Bullying: Do ToM and Social Competence Skills Play a Role? (original) (raw)
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Scoping Review on Theory of Mind and Bullying: A Critical Update
Psicologia - Teoria e Prática
The present study aimed to conduct a scoping review on researches that investigated the relationship between Theory of Mind (ToM) and school bullying found in seven databases in the areas of health/ psychology (PubMed, PsycInfo, and Lilacs), education (Eric), and interdisciplinary (SciELO, Web of Science, and Scopus). Of the 270 results initially identified, 14 were eligible for review and were analyzed regarding their main results, the measures in ToM used, and variables related to the classification of bullying. It was found that most studies reported a direct (relationships that tend to be statistically significant) and/or indirect (mediated by other variables) relationship between the roles of the students involved and types of bullying and the performance in tasks of ToM. However, a critical discussion regarding the assessment measures in ToM was carried out, pointing to the need for clarification in the type of assessment and updating of tasks.
A prospective longitudinal study of children’s theory of mind and adolescent involvement in bullying
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2012
Background: Theory of mind (ToM) allows the understanding and prediction of other people's behaviours based on their mental states (e.g. beliefs). It is important for healthy social relationships and thus may contribute towards children's involvement in bullying. The present study investigated whether children involved in bullying during early adolescence had poor ToM in childhood. Method: Participants were members of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative sample of 2,232 children and their families. We visited families when children were 5, 7, 10 and 12 years. ToM was assessed when the children were 5 years using eight standardized tasks. Identification of those children who were involved in bullying as victims, bullies and bully-victims using mothers', teachers' and children's reports was carried out when they were 12 years' old. Results: Poor ToM predicted becoming a victim (effect size, d = 0.26), bully (d = 0.25) or bully-victim (d = 0.44) in early adolescence. These associations remained for victims and bully-victims when child-specific (e.g. IQ) and family factors (e.g. child maltreatment) were controlled for. Emotional and behavioural problems during middle childhood did not modify the association between poor ToM and adolescent bullying experiences. Conclusion: Identifying and supporting children with poor ToM early in life could help reduce their vulnerability for involvement in bullying and thus limit its adverse effects on mental health. Keywords: Theory of mind, bullying involvement, child development.
Early Adolescents' Participation in Bullying: Is ToM Involved?
Journal of Early Adolescence, 2010
The present study investigated the role of theory of mind (ToM) skills in three forms of involvement in bullying: ringleader bullying, defending the victim(s), and victimization. Individual (affective empathy) and interpersonal variables (social preference and perceived popularity) were assumed to moderate the associations between ToM and the ways of being involved in bullying. Moderation effects by gender were also explored. Participants were 211 primary school pupils (average age = 10 years and 2 months, SD = 6 months), who took part in a ToM interview and filled in self-and peer-report questionnaires on empathy, social status, and involvement in bullying. ToM skills were positively linked to defending, and among boys this association was further strengthened by social preference. Practical implications include the need to focus on both peer relationships (i.e., status) and emotional characteristics (i.e., empathy) when trying to motivate youth with good cognitive skills to actively defend their victimized classmates.
Child & Youth Care Forum, 2017
Background Children's bullying involvement may arise from biases and deficiencies in social information processing, and it is important to consider cognitive and emotional aspects of bullying because social cognition is an important aspect of children's social skills and their ability to get along with others. It is also important to understand how children see things from others' point-of-view. Objective The study examined whether empathic concern, perspective-taking, attitude towards bullying, and Theory-of-Mind were associated with non-physical form of bully perpetration and victimization in diverse sample of middle school students.
Social Development, 2001
Bullying in schools has been found to be widespread. The popular stereotype of a bully, supported by theories based on the social skills deficit model, is of a powerful but 'oafish' person with little understanding of others. In this article, we trace the origin of this view, and present an alternative view: that some bullies, at least, will need good social cognition and theory of mind skills in order to manipulate and organise others, inflicting suffering in subtle and damaging ways while avoiding detection themselves. Such skills, although likely to be utilised in all bullying, may be particularly useful for ringleader bullies and in the indirect forms of bullying which are more common between girls. Suggestions for further research in this area are made, and implications for antibullying work briefly discussed.
Theory of Mind and Victimization: A Preliminary Study on Indonesian Junior High School Students
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2016
This preliminary study examined the relationship between theory of mind and victimization in junior high school students. This study tested the hypothesis that theory of mind has negative correlation with victimization. The amount of subjects in this research are 372 junior high school students, ages 13-16, completed measures on theory of mind and victimization. The result indicates that students'theory of mind is significantly associated with victimization. This research also discussed about gender as moderator variable. The research findings, limitations and recommendations are discussed.
Interactive Links Between Theory of Mind, Peer Victimization, and Reactive and Proactive Aggression
2010
This study investigated the relation between theory of mind and reactive and proactive aggression, respectively, as well as the moderating role of peer victimization in this context. The 574 participants were drawn from a longitudinal study of twins. Theory of mind was assessed before school entry, when participants were 5 years old. Reactive and proactive aggression as well as peer victimization were assessed a year later in kindergarten. Results from multilevel regression analyses revealed that low theory of mind was related to a high level of reactive aggression, but only in children who experienced average to high levels of peer victimization. In contrast, a high theory of mind was related to a high level of proactive aggression. Again, this relation was
PloS one, 2018
Bullying involvement is prevalent among children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the effects of theory of mind performance training (ToMPT) on reducing bullying involvement in children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD. Children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD completed ToMPT (n = 26) and social skills training (SST; n = 23) programs. Participants in both groups and their mothers rated the pretraining and posttraining bullying involvement of participants on the Chinese version of the School Bullying Experience Questionnaire. The paired t test was used to evaluate changes in bullying victimization and perpetration between the pretraining and posttraining assessments. Furthermore, the linear mixed-effect model was used to examine the difference in the training effect between the ToMPT and SST groups. The paired t test indicated that in the ToMPT group, the severities of both self-reported (p = .039) and mother-reported (p = .0...