My Sibling's but Not My Friend's Keeper: Reasoning about Responses to Aggressive Acts

Abstract

This research examined early adolescents' social cognitions about the role a peer plays as a bystander when an aggressor is either a sibling or a friend. One-hundred eleven subjects from 4th, 6th, and 8th grades were posed questions about whether a bystander of an aggressive act would intervene and, if yes, how; whether it would be wrong not to intervene; and in which bystander relationships (sibling or friend) would it be more wrong to ignore the aggressive act. With increasing age, fewer participants indicated that a bystander would intervene and should intervene. Female participants expected their same gender peers to intervene. The results also indicated that a bystander was expected to respond to a sibling, as compared to a friend, and that it would be more wrong not to intervene when an aggressor was a sibling than when an aggressor was a friend. There were grade differences in bystander's expected behavior