Perspective-taking and belief in a just world matter: Adolescents' role experiences in bullying processes

Bullying is a serious problem around the world, especially among adolescents. Evidence exists that low levels of social perspective-taking as well as belief in a just world played an important role in bullying. Both dispositions function as psychological resources that may help students behave appropriately in social life. Previous research identified distinct bullying roles such as perpetrator, victim, assistant, reinforcer, defender, and bystander experiences. Although this participant-role approach has been extensively investigated in the last years, a simultaneous examination of students' perspective-taking and belief in a just world in relation to their experiences in these roles is still missing. This study's objective was to examine a differential approach of school students' visuospatial and dispositional social perspective-taking, emotional concern, and personal belief in a just world in relation to their experiences in bullying roles. We tested these relations in a sample of n = 1309 adolescents (50.6% female, M-age = 13.73, SDage = 0.85) from 38 schools in Germany. The results from a latent structural-equation model suggested that experiences as a perpetrator, assistant, reinforcer but also as defender related to low visuospatial social perspective-taking. Emotional concern was positively related to defender experiences. Personal belief in a just world was negatively associated with experiences as a perpetrator and a victim. The results underline the importance of disentangling concurrent contributions of perspective-taking and belief in a just world related to the bullying roles. We conclude that adolescents' visuospatial social perspective taking seems to be a further mental resource against antisocial behavior in bullying.

Automated summary

Bullying is a serious problem worldwide, and research has found that low levels of social perspective-taking and belief in a just world play important roles in bullying. This study aimed to explore the relationships between students' visuospatial and dispositional social perspective-taking, emotional concern, personal belief in a just world, and their experiences in bullying roles. The results showed that experiences as a perpetrator, assistant, reinforcer, and defender were related to low visuospatial social perspective-taking, emotional concern was positively related to defender experiences, and personal belief in a just world was negatively associated with experiences as a perpetrator and a victim. These findings highlight the significance of perspective-taking and belief in a just world in the context of bullying roles.