The Effects of Altruism Education on Middle School Students’ Attitudes Toward Victims of Bullying and Intent to Prosocially Intervene

Bullying among young people is a problem that affects communities throughout the world. Its negative effects can be both immediate and long-term, for both the victims and the perpetrators. Despite increased attention to bullying-related issues in recent years (in research and in the general public), as well as an increase in school-based awareness/prevention programs, considerable discrepancies in the related research remain. What has become clear is that the majority of traditional bullying among young people occurs at or near schools, and most often occurs within the presence of bystander-peers (i.e., those students who are present but are neither the perpetrators nor the victims). Some research has shown that teaching people about the reasons why bystanders do not step in to prosocially intervene in bullying situations can increase the chances that they will subsequently step in to help. The present study sought to expand on this research by examining the effects of a brief altruism education intervention on middle school students’ pro-victim attitudes toward victims of bullying and prosocial behavioral intent to intervene in bullying situations (both immediately following the intervention and at 8-week follow-up assessment). A MANCOVA analysis was utilized to examine two hypotheses and two research questions with a sample of 154 eighth-grade students from four mid-western middle schools. Overall, study results were not found to support the hypotheses. Specifically, the intervention was not found to increase either students' pro-victim attitudes or students' prosocial behavioral intentions, neither immediately following the intervention (Hypotheses 1a & 2a, respectively) nor in the long-term (Hypotheses 1b & 2b, respectively). Study results did suggest a significant sex difference, such that boys' showed greater pro-victim attitudes at posttest 1. The lack of significant findings points to a continued need for examination of time- and cost-effective interventions designed to increase students’ prosocial attitudes and behavioral intentions related to bullying. Suggestions for addressing the present study’s limitations in future research were discussed, including utilizing the present measures with additional samples and/or developing/utilizing different measures of pro-victim attitudes and prosocial behavioral intentions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling Psychology (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Poindexter, Amy Leigh

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brown, Chrisanthia, 1957-

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/45643

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/45643