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Part of the problem
Are you really helping your
friend being bullied online?
By Wade Zaglas
It seems a virtuous thing to do: your friend
or a peer is being cyberbullied and you
defend them in a slightly aggressive way.
Perhaps you could have defended them
more maturely and constructively, but the
very act of defending them creates a better
space online for all, right? Well, the answer
is actually no.
According to a new study by researchers
at Macquarie University, individuals who
defend their peers online in aggressive
ways are likely to “morally disengage” in a
similar fashion to bullies, suspending their
normal moral standards online and possibly
escalating cyberbullying.
The findings were revealed by Associate
Professor Kay Bussey and three other
researchers at the university, who surveyed
540 students aged 11 to 15, for a study
titled ‘Defending victims of cyberbullying:
The role of self-efficacy and moral
disengagement’, published in the Journal of
School Psychology.
A questionnaire at the centre of the
study evaluated students’ belief in their
ability to confront cyberbullies (defending
self-efficacy) and when they act in ways
that are contrary to their “professed
ethical beliefs” (moral disengagement).
According to the researchers, there are two
types of cyber defending – constructive
and aggressive.
“Both aggressive and constructive
defending responses aim to assist the victim
and are pro-socially motivated. Constructive
defending responses, however, are
more problem-solving focused, whereas
aggressive defending responses are likely to
escalate the bullying,” researchers Luo and
Bussey concluded in 2019.
While constructive defending could
include comforting a victim, aggressive
defending is characterised by insults and
threats towards the bully, the researchers
assert. Furthermore, individuals resorting
to aggressive defending are, in the norm,
“unconfident in their ability to defend the
victims, and less likely to act online in ways
they consider to be moral”.
“If defenders are to be part of the
solution and not a problem in anti-bullying
strategies, they need to learn how to
confidently respond constructively rather
than aggressively to bullying episodes,”
Bussey said.
The associate professor also said the
results showed that witnesses to aggressive
online bullying may also adopt more
aggressive behaviours online.
“The ease of retaliation, disinhibition
caused by lack of visual cues, and as
suggested by Bauman (2010), moral
disengagement may actually be fostered in
cyberspace, which could well lead to even
more bullying,” she said.
Defenders need to learn
how to confidently respond
constructively rather than
aggressively to bullying.
From the outset the researchers did not
expect this result. The scholars assumed
all cyber defending would be associated
with “lower moral disengagement”, as any
kind of defence is seen as pro-social and
virtuous action in itself.
But while bullies are almost expected
to show high moral disengagement,
the study found that victim
defenders display moral disengagement
as well. “This seems contradictory,
if the defenders believe they are
performing an ethical action,” the
researchers contend.
The study also found that those
who “strongly believed in their ability
to defend friends or peers from
cyberbullying were more likely to report
doing it in a more constructive, rather than
aggressive way”.
Cyberbullying has become a pervasive
problem globally for both adults and
adolescents, causing a multitude of
adverse psychological effects on
those targeted. These can include
depression, anxiety, suicide ideation, poor
academic achievement and low levels of
self-esteem. ■
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