Empathy and Moral Disengagement as Predictors of Bystander Roles in Bullying

žetak Glavni cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati doprinos empatije i moralnog distanciranja objašnjenju ponašanja promatrača vršnjačkog nasilja. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 325 učenika (158 dječaka i 167 djevojčica ) iz dviju zagrebačkih osnovnih škola, čija je prosječna dob iznosila 13 godina. Pri prikupljanju podataka korišteni su sljedeći instrumenti: Skala emocionalne empatije (Raboteg-Šarić, 2002), prilagođena verzija Skale moralnog distanciranja u odnosu na vršnjačko nasilje (The Moral Disengagement Regarding School Bullying Scale; Hymel i sur.,2005) i prilagođena verzija Upitnika uloga sudionika (Participant Role Questionnaire; Salmivalli i sur., 1996). Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su kako djevojčice u odnosu na dječake u manjoj mjeri pomažu nasilnicima te u većoj mjeri brane žrtve vršnjačkog nasilja. S porastom dobi promatrači vršnjačkog nasilja u većoj mjeri potiču nasilnike, dok u manjoj mjeri brane žrtve vršnjačkog nasilja. Utvrđena je značajna pozitivna povezanost empatije i varijable branitelja žrtve te značajna negativna povezanost empatije i varijabli pomagača i poticatelja nasilnika. Također je pronađena značajna pozitivna povezanost između moralnog distanciranja i varijabli pomagača nasilnika, poticatelja nasilnika i agresivnog branitelja žrtve te značajna negativna povezanost između moralnog distanciranja i varijable branitelja žrtve. Regresijskom analizom, uz kontrolu spola i dobi promatrača vršnjačkog nasilja, pokazalo se kako je empatija značajan pozitivan prediktor ponašanja promatrača u ulozi branitelja i agresivnog branitelja. Moralno distanciranje pokazalo se kao pozitivan prediktor ponašanja pomagača nasilnika, poticatelja nasilnika i agresivnog branitelja te kao negativan prediktor ponašanja branitelja žrtve vršnjačkog nasilja.The main objective of this study was to determine the contribution of empathy and moral disengagement in the explanation of bystander roles in bullying. The research was conducted on 325 primary students from two elementary schools in Zagreb (158 boys and 167 girls) whose mean age was 13 years. During data collection process the following instruments were applied: Emotional Empathy Scale (Raboteg-Šarić, 2002), adapted version of the Moral Disengagement Regarding School Bullying Scale (Hymel i sur.,2005), as well as adapted version of the Participant role Questionnaire (Salmivalli, 1996). Results showed that girls, compared to boys, assist the bullies to a lesser and defend the victim to a greater extent, while on the other variables of bystander behaviors no gender differences were found. Furthemore, older bystanders defend the victim in a lesser and reinforce the bully in a greater extent. Besides being positively correlated with defender of the victim role, empathy also correlated negatively with assistant, as well as with the reinforcer of the bully role. Moral disengagement, on the other hand, correlated positively with the aggressive defender of the victim, as well as with assistant and reinforcer of the bully roles, while being negatively correlated with defender of the victim role. Regression analysis showed that, after controlling for the effects of bystanders gender and age, empathy is a significant positive predictor of defender and aggressive defender of the victim roles. In addition, moral disengagement, on one hand, proved to be a positive predictor of aggressive defender of the victim, as well as of assistant and reinforcer of the bully roles and a negative predictor of defender of the victim role on the other hand