Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine whether pro-bullying attitudes are capable of mediating the low empathy–bullying relationship in the absence of a significant unmediated correlation between low empathy and bullying behavior. Using three waves of self-report data from 1371 (677 boys, 694 girls) pre-adolescent/early adolescent members of the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence (ISBSV), the mediating effect of pro-bullying attitudes on the low empathy–bullying connection was examined. A path analysis revealed that pro-bullying attitudes successfully mediated the pathway running from low empathy to bully perpetration even though the unmediated relationship between low empathy and bullying perpetration was non-significant. A control or comparison pathway running from bully perpetration to pro-bullying attitudes to low empathy was also tested and found to be non-significant. It would appear that low empathy contributes to bullying perpetration by stimulating pro-bullying attitudes which, in turn, promote bullying perpetration. The theoretical, research, and practical implications of these results are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allison, P. D. (2012). Handling missing data by maximum likelihood. SAS Global Forum 2012 (Paper 312–2012). Cary: SAS Institute.
Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Pollard, J. A., Catalano, R. F., & Baglioni, A. J. (2002). Measuring risk and protective factors for substance use, delinquency, and other adolescent problem behaviors: the communities that care youth survey. Evaluation Review, 26, 573–601. https://doi.org/10.1177/019384102237850.
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: a social learning analysis. Oxford: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliff: Prentice-Hall.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173.
Bosworth, K., & Espelage, D. (1995). Teen conflict survey. Bloomington: Center for Adolescent Studies, Indiana University.
Cappadocia, M. C., Pepler, D., Cummings, J. G., & Craig, W. (2012). Individual motivations and characteristics associated with bystander intervention during bullying episodes among children and youth. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 27, 210–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573512450567.
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7, 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309.
Cole, D. A., & Maxwell, S. E. (2003). Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: questions and tips in the use of structural equation modeling. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 558–577. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.112.4.558.
Collins, L. M., Schafer, J. L., & Kam, C. M. (2001). A comparison of inclusive and restrictive strategies in modern missing data procedures. Psychological Methods, 6, 330–351. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.6.4.330.
Elwert, F., & Winship, C. (2014). Endogenous selection bias: the problem of conditioning on a collider variable. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043455.
Endresen, I. M., & Olweus, D. (2001). Self-reported empathy in Norwegian adolescents: sex differences, age trends, and relationship to bullying. In A. C. Bohart, C. Arthur, & D. J. Stipek (Eds.), Constructive and destructive behavior (pp. 147–165). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Espelage, D. L. (2016). Leveraging school-based research to inform bullying prevention and policy. American Psychologist, 71, 768–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000095.
Espelage, D. L., & Asidao, C. S. (2001). Conversations with middle school students about bullying and victimization: should we be concerned? Journal of Emotional Abuse, 2, 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1300/J135v02n02_04.
Espelage, D. L., & Holt, M. K. (2001). Bullying and victimization during early adolescence: peer influences and psychosocial correlates. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 2, 123–142. https://doi.org/10.1300/J135v02n02_08.
Espelage, D. L., & Low, S. (2013). Understanding and preventing adolescent bullying, sexual violence, and dating violence. In E. M. Vera (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of prevention in counseling psychology (pp. 163–183). New York: Oxford University Press.
Espelage, D. L., Holt, M. K., & Henkel, R. R. (2003). Examination of peer-group contextual effects on aggression during early adolescence. Child Development, 74, 205–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00531.
Espelage, D. L., Low, S. K., Anderson, C., & De La Rue, L. (2014). Bullying, sexual, and dating violence trajectories from early to late adolescence. Report submitted to the National Institute of Justice Grant #2011-MU-FX-0022.
Espelage, D. L., Hong, J. S., Merrin, G. J., Davis, J. P., Rose, C. A., & Little, T. D. (2017). A longitudinal examination of homophobic name-calling in middle school: bullying, traditional masculinity, and sexual harassment as predictors. Psychology of Violence. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000083.
Farrington, D. P., & Baldry, A. C. (2010). Individual risk factors for school bullying. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 2, 4–16. https://doi.org/10.5042/jacpr.2010.0001.
Gini, G., Pozzoli, T., & Bussey, K. (2014). Collective moral disengagement: initial validation of a scale for adolescents. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 11, 386–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2013.851024.
Golmaryami, F. N., Frick, P. J., Hemphill, S. A., Kahn, R. E., Crapanzano, A. M., & Terranova, A. M. (2016). The social, behavioral, and emotional correlates of bullying and victimization in a school-based sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-9994-x.
Greenland, S. (2003). Quantifying biases in causal models: classical confounding versus collider-stratification bias. Epidemiology, 14, 300–306. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.EDE.0000042804.12056.6C.
Hayes, A. F. (2009). Beyond baron and Kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs, 76, 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310360.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. New York: Guilford.
Huesmann, L. R. (Ed.). (1994). Aggressive behavior: current perspectives. New York: Springer.
James, L. R., & Brett, J. M. (1984). Mediators, moderators, and tests for mediation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.2.307.
Jansen, P. W., Zwirs, B., Verlinden, M., Mieloo, C. L., Jaddoe, V. W. V., et al. (2017). Observed and parent-reported conscience in childhood: relations with bullying involvement in early primary school. Social Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12233.
Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Examining the relationship between low empathy and bullying. Aggressive Behavior, 32, 540–550. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20154.
Kaukiainen, A., Bjorkvist, K., Lagerspetz, K., Osterman, K., Salmivalli, C., et al. (1999). The relationships between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 81–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2337(1999)25:2%3C81::AID-AB1%3E3.0.CO;2-M.
Kenny, D. A. (2013). Mediation: sensitivity analysis [webinar]. Retrieved from http://davidakenny.net/webinars/Mediation/Sensitivity/Sensitivity.html.
Kenny, D. A., & Judd, C. M. (2014). Power anomalies in testing mediation. Psychological Science, 25, 334–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613502676.
Low, S., & Espelage, D. (2014). Conduits from community violence exposure to peer aggression and victimization: contributions of parental monitoring, impulsivity, and deviancy. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61, 221–231. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035207.
Low, S., Polanin, J. R., & Espelage, D. L. (2013). The role of social networks in physical and relational aggression among young adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42, 1078–1089. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9933-5.
Lucia, S. (2016). Correlates of bullying in Switzerland. European Journal of Criminology, 13, 50–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370815608880.
MacKinnon, D. P., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & Gottschall, A. C. (2013). Developments in mediation analysis. In T. D. Little (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of quantitative methods (Vol. 2, pp. 338–360). New York: Oxford University Press.
McMahon, S. D., Wernsman, J., & Parnes, A. I. (2006). Understanding prosocial behavior: The impact of empathy and gender among African American adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31, 135–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.10.008.
Mitsopoulou, E., & Giovazolias, T. (2015). Personality traits, empathy and bullying behavior: a meta-analytic approach. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 21, 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.01.007.
Muthén, B., & Muthén, L. (1998–2007). Mplus user’s guide (5th ed.). Los Angeles: Muthén and Muthén.
Nocentini, A., & Menesini, E. (2016). KiVa anti-bullying program in Italy: evidence of effectiveness in a randomized control trial. Prevention Science, 17, 1012–1023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0690-z.
Palmieri, V. G., Borer, K., Janos, S., Da Via, C., & Casagrande, L. (1998). Evidence for charge collection efficiency recovery in heavily irradiated silicon detectors operated at cryogenic temperatures. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 413(2–3), 475–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(98)00673-1.
Peyre, H., Leplége, A., & Coste, J. (2011). Missing data methods for dealing with missing items in quality of life questionnaires: a comparison by simulation of personal mean score, full information maximum likelihood, multiple imputation, and hot deck techniques applied to the SF-36 in the French 2003 decennial health survey. Quality of Life Research, 20, 287–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9740-3.
Pituch, K. A., & Stapleton, L. M. (2008). The performance of methods to test upper-level mediation in the presence of nonnormal data. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 43, 237–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273170802034844.
Pozzoli, T., Gini, G., & Vieno, A. (2012). Individual and class moral disengagement in bullying among elementary school children. Aggressive Behavior, 38, 378–388. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21442.
Preacher, K. J. (2015). Advances in mediation analysis: a survey and synthesis of new developments. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 825–852. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015258.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879.
Rucker, D. D., Preacher, K. J., Tormala, Z. L., & Petty, R. E. (2011). Mediation analysis in social psychology: current practices and new recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 359–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00355.x.
Schultze-Krumbholz, A., & Scheithauer, H. (2013). Is cyberbullying related to lack of empathy and social-emotional problems? International Journal of Developmental Science, 7, 161–166. https://doi.org/10.3233/DEV-130124.
Schultze-Krumbholz, A., Schultze, M., Zagorscak, P., Wölfer, R., & Scheithauer, H. (2016). Feeling cybervictims’ pain—the effect of empathy training on cyberbullying. Aggressive Behavior, 42, 147–156. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21613.
Sijtsema, J. J., Rambaran, J. A., Caravita, S. C. S., & Gini, G. (2014). Friendship selection and influence in bullying and defending: effects of moral disengagement. Developmental Psychology, 50, 2093–2104. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037145.
Stavrinides, P., Georgiou, S., & Theofanous, V. (2010). Bullying and empathy: a short-term longitudinal investigation. Educational Psychology, 30, 793–802. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2010.506004.
Stoddard, S. A., Varela, J. J., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2015). Future expectations, attitude toward violence, and bullying perpetration during early adolescence: a mediation evaluation. Nursing Research, 64, 422–433. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000127.
van Noorden, T. H. J., Haelager, G. J. T., Cillessen, A. H. N., & Bukowski, W. M. (2015). Empathy and involvement in bullying in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 637–657. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0135-6.
Vaux, A. (1988). Social and emotional loneliness: the role of social and personal characteristics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 722–734. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167288144007.
Walters, G. D. (2016). Mediating the distal crime–drug relationship with proximal reactive criminal thinking. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30, 128–137. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000139.
Walters, G. D. (2017). P M effect size estimation for mediation analysis: a cautionary note, alternate strategy, and real data illustration. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2017.1305710.
Williford, A., Boulton, A. J., Forrest-Bank, S. S., Bender, K. A., Dietrich, W. A., & Jenson, J. M. (2016). The effect of bullying and victimization on cognitive empathy development during the transition to middle school. Child & Youth Care Forum, 45, 525–541. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-015-9343-9.
Wu, A. D., & Zumbo, B. D. (2008). Understanding and using mediators and moderators. Social Indicators Research, 87, 367–392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9143-1.
You, S., Lee, J., Lee, Y., & Kim, A. Y. (2015). Bullying among Korean adolescents: the role of empathy and attachment. Psychology in the Schools, 52, 594–606. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21842.
Young, R., & Johnson, D. R. (2013). Methods for handling missing secondary respondent data. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75, 221–234. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.01021.x.
Acknowledgements
Research for the current study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (#1 U01/CE001677) to Dorothy Espelage (PI).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
This research was approved by the Institutional Review Boards at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Kutztown University.
Informed Consent
Passive informed consent was obtained from parents/guardians and assent was obtained from the children who participated in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Walters, G.D., Espelage, D.L. Resurrecting the Empathy–Bullying Relationship with a Pro-Bullying Attitudes Mediator: the Lazarus Effect in Mediation Research. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46, 1229–1239 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0355-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0355-9