Bullying in school: Prevalence, bystanders^ reaction, and associations with subjective well-being Ihsana Sabriani Borualogo, Oki Mardiawan, Ali Mubarak, Dinda Dwarawati
Faculty of Psychology Universitas Islam Bandung
Abstract
This study aims to investigate prevalence, bystanders^ reaction, and association with subjective well-being (SWB). Sample (N = 645, 58.3% girls, 41.7% boys) were representative of middle school students in Bandung City. Bystander reaction to the bullying incident in school (Eijigu & Teketel, 2021), and the Children^s Worlds Subjective Well-Being Scale 5 items (CW-SWBS5- Borualogo & Casas, 2019) were used to collect data. Data were analysed using linear regression. Girls reported witnessing bullying more frequently than boys. Almost one in five girls (19.4%) say they witnessed bullying at least once a day. The most bystanders reported that the perpetrator was a boy of similar age (84.2%), indicating that peer-to-peer bullying among boys is the most common pattern. The majority of bullying incidents occur in the classroom (90.9%). No students were exclusively bully supporter. The largest group (36.1%) are passive bystander-defender, showing many students switch between helping and doing nothing. The model is statistically significant (p = .039- F = 1.979), but only explain 1.3% of variance in SWB of bystanders. Gender contributed to SWB of students, where boys reported higher SWB than girls about 5.2 points. Students who alternate between passive bystander and defender also contributed negatively (β- = -.184) to SWB of students. Being passive bystander (β-= -.139) significantly contributed to lower SWB compared to non-passive students. Surprisingly, defender (β-= -.184) also reported lower SWB than non-defenders. Results were valuable for parents and teachers to help students keeping their SWB while witnessing bullying.
Keywords: Bystander- Prevalence- School bullying, Subjective Well-Being.
