title: Children's physiological and emotional reactions to witnessing bullying predict bystander intervention.
abstract: Study goals were to explore whether children clustered into groups based on reactions to witnessing bullying and to examine whether these reactions predicted bullying intervention. Seventy-nine children (M = 10.80 years) watched bullying videos in the laboratory while their heart rate (HR) was measured, and they self-reported on negative emotion after each video. Bullying intervention was assessed by school peers. Two groups emerged based on reactions to the bullying videos: The Emotional group (43% of children) displayed HR acceleration and reported high negative emotion, whereas the Unemotional group (57% of children) showed HR deceleration and reported low negative emotion. Group membership predicted bullying intervention, with peers reporting that Emotional children were more likely to stop a bully than Unemotional children.
authors.affiliation: University of Delaware.
authors.forename: Lydia R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Barhight
authors.forename: Julie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hubbard
authors.forename: Christopher T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Hyde
mesh_terms: D058445:Bullying / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D019548:Crime Victims; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012574:Schools; D057566:Self Report