WHAT MAKES THEM HELP?: A META-ANALYSIS ON FACTORS INFLUENCING BYSTANDERS BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSES IN CYBERBULLYING

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a social event with triadic interrelations among the bully perpetrator, victim, and bystanders. Bystanders often constitute the largest group, yet they rarely intervened in a situation. Research found bystanders to exhibit various forms of responses during a cyberbully incident (e.g., prosocial, reinforcing, and passive behaviours). Current literature has largely ignored investigations on cyberbullying, especially on the role of bystanders and their specific responses. A three-level random-effects meta-analytic approach was thus used to identify the relationships among 20 attributes and three types of bystander behavioural reactions in cyberbullying. Results from 266 effect sizes evidenced contextual factors to be the highest contributor of reinforcing reactions, and personal factors to be strongly positively connected with prosocial responses and negatively related to bystander inactivity. Specifically, personal responsibility largely predicted bystanders' positive actions; having past (cyber)bully perpetrator experience highly influenced one's tendency to engage in reinforcing behaviours; and a relationship with either one of the participants in the cyberbully network was most associated with passive bystanding, exhibiting a negative relationship. Age and behavioural response type significantly moderated these associations, while no gender effect surfaced. Sensitivity analyses conducted reaffirmed the robustness of the results. Implications, limitations, and future directions of this meta-analysis were discussed.