The association between adolescents' beliefs in a just world and their attitudes to victims of bullying.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0370636 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0007-0998 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00070998 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Br J Educ Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: <2012-> : Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: Edinburgh : Scottish Academic Press

Attitude* ; Culture* ; Personal Construct Theory* ; Psychology, Adolescent* ; Social Behavior* ; Social Justice*; Crime Victims/*psychology; Adaptation, Psychological ; Adolescent ; Child ; Empathy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Personality Inventory ; Prejudice ; Self Concept ; Sex Factors

Background: Research which has investigated children's attitudes to bullying has found that the majority of children display anti-bullying attitudes. However, a small minority of children do appear to admire the bully and lack sympathy for victims of bullying. The just world belief theory has received a great deal of attention in recent years with evidence emerging in support of a two-dimensional model distinguishing between beliefs in a just world (BJW) for self and BJW for others. BJW-self (and not BJW-others) has been found to uniquely predict psychological well-being, whereas BJW-others (and not BJW-self) uniquely predicts harsh social attitudes and derogation of victims.
Aim: The aim of the present study was to measure BJW-self and others in a sample of UK secondary schoolchildren and to see whether BJW-others can account for adolescents' negative attitudes towards victims of bullying.
Sample: In total, 346 pupils aged 11-16 years of age (270 males, 76 females) from two schools took part in the study.
Methods: The participants completed measures of BJW-self and others, attitudes to victims of bullying, empathy, and self-esteem on a whole class basis.
Results: It was found that BJW-others uniquely predicted adolescents' attitudes to victims but in the opposite direction to that which was predicted - high BJW were associated with stronger anti-bullying attitudes. As predicted, BJW-self (but not BJW-others) was positively and uniquely correlated with self-esteem.
Conclusion: The findings are discussed in the context of research which has found that the direction of the relationship between BJW-others and derogation of victims appears to depend on the nature of the injustice, with people with strong BJW less tolerant of severe injustices.

Date Created: 20091126 Date Completed: 20100701 Latest Revision: 20141120

20231215

10.1348/000709909X479105

19930790