Norm Misperception and Witnessing Bullying: The Role of Individual and Contextual Characteristics

Previous studies have shown that when young people witness bullying, perceived social norms of their peer group affect their behavior. However, few studies have examined the specificity of norm misperception (i.e., overestimation of peer antisocial responses and the underestimation of prosocial responses relative to the objective group norm) on specific witness responses (joining in, bystanding or active defending).

The present study analyzed the effect of norm misperception on witnessing bullying behaviors, as well as the moderating role of individual (gender and deviant peer pressure) and contextual characteristics (classroom descriptive norms).

Multivariate multilevel analyzes were conducted on a Spanish sample (n = 2,054 adolescents, 52% girls; M_age = 12.31; SD = 1.08; 87 classrooms from 13 middle schools).

The results show that young people who overestimate classmates' pro-bullying behaviors are more likely to nominate pro-bullying responses themselves, with higher effects in boys, and those adolescents with higher deviant peer pressure and in classrooms with higher pro-bullying. Overestimations of classmates' passive bystander behaviors was associated with more individual bystanding, with higher effects in boys. Underestimations of classmates' defending was associated with lower individual defending, with higher effects in those adolescents in classrooms with lower defending. This knowledge provides valuable empirical insights for developing bullying interventions to work adolescents' misperceptions.