Abstract
Norms have been suggested as important characteristics of the social-ecological context for defending victimized peers, but little is known about the contribution of student perceived injunctive norms (regarding the appropriateness of defending) imposed by peers and teachers. To investigate the role of these norms in defending, a sample of 751 early adolescents (51% female; Mage at Time 1:13 years) was assessed at two time points. Defending, as measured by peer- and self-ratings, decreased slightly over a six-month timespan. Three-level models (with time, students, and classrooms as the levels) indicated that both individual- and classroom-level perceived peer injunctive norms (but not teacher injunctive norms) had positive effects on defending over time regardless of the source of the information on defending (peers or self). These findings support programs that encourage defending through peer norms.
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Authors' Contributions
L.K. contributed to the coordination of the study, its conception and design and drafted the theoretical sections of the manuscript. T.Y. contributed to the design, performed the analyses and drafted the technical sections of the manuscript. A.M. helped to draft the manuscript and contributed to the literature review and interpretation of the results. P.S. contributed to the design, preparation of the analytical approach, and revision of the draft. D.S. contributed to the coordination of the study, its conception and design and revised the manuscript for important content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by the joint mobility program of the Czech Republic and Austria. The grant was funded in Austria by the OEAD (under grant number CZ17/2017) within the Scientific & Technological Cooperation Programm Österrreich–Rumänien and in the Czech Republic by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (under Grant Number 7AMB17AT034). This research was also supported by research grant from the Czech Science Foundation (under Grant Number GA15-00682S).
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Kollerová, L., Yanagida, T., Mazzone, A. et al. “They Think that I Should Defend”: Effects of Peer and Teacher Injunctive Norms on Defending Victimized Classmates in Early Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 47, 2424–2439 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0918-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0918-2