title: Brief report: The bystander effect in cyberbullying incidents.
abstract: This study examined the bystander effect in cyberbullying. Using self-reported data from 257 Czech respondents who had witnessed a cyberbullying attack, we tested whether provided help decreased with increased number of other bystanders. We controlled for several individual and contextual factors, including empathy, social self-efficacy, empathic response to victimization, and relationship to the victim. Results showed that participants tend to help the victims more in incidents with only one or two other bystanders. We also found that, as in the "offline" realm, bystander effect is not linear: no significant differences were found between incidents with a moderate number (3-10) and a larger number of total bystanders. Our findings, thus, provide support for the presence of the bystander effect in cyberbullying.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Families, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address: hmachack@fss.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Machackova
authors.affiliation: Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Families, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dedkova
authors.affiliation: Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Families, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mezulanikova
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D058445:Bullying / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D024201:Bystander Effect; D002648:Child; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bystander effect; Bystanders; Cyberbullying