Challenging the Exclusion of Immigrant Peers.

The present study examined age-related differences in bystander reactions within the context of peer exclusion of national ingroup (British) and immigrant outgroup (Australian or Turkish) peers. The immigrant peers were from nations that varied in terms of their perceived intergroup status in Britain. Participants were British children (n = 110, 8-11 years) and adolescents (n = 193, 13-16 years) who were presented with one of three scenarios in which either a British national, Australian immigrant or Turkish immigrant peer was excluded by a British peer group. Participants indicated their bystander responses. Perceived similarity and bystander self-efficacy were examined as possible correlates of bystander reactions. Findings revealed that children were more likely to directly challenge the social exclusion when the excluded peer was British or Australian compared to when they were Turkish. In contrast, adolescents did not differentiate in their response - they were equally likely to directly challenge the exclusion regardless of the excluded peer's nationality. Importantly, when the excluded peer was Turkish, moderated mediation analysis showed that, with age, there was higher bystander self-efficacy for challenging the exclusions. In turn, higher bystander self-efficacy was related to higher direct challenging. These novel findings demonstrate the importance of intergroup relations, perceived similarity and bystander self-efficacy in the emergence of age-related differences in bystander reactions to the exclusion of immigrant peers [219 words].

What motivates adolescent bystanders to intervene when immigrant youth are bullied?

Pathways to bystander responses were examined in both generalized and bias-based bullying incidents involving immigrant-origin victims. Participants were 168 (Mage  = 14.54, 57% female) adolescents of immigrant (37.5%) and nonimmigrant backgrounds, who responded to their likelihood of intervening on behalf of either an Arab or Latine victim. Models tested whether contact with immigrants and one's desires for social contact with immigrant-origin peers mediated the effects of individual (shared immigrant background, and discriminatory tendencies) and situational (inclusive peer norms) intergroup factors on active bystander responses. Findings indicated that desires for social contact reliably mediated effects across both victims; however, contact with immigrant peers was only associated with responses to Latine victims. Implications for how to promote bystander intervention are discussed.

Do Adolescents Intervene in Intergroup Bias-based Bullying? Bystander Judgments and Responses to Intergroup Bias-based Bullying of Refugees.

This study examined 587 Turkish adolescents' (Mage = 13.14, SD = 1.61) judgments and bystander responses towards hypothetical intragroup interpersonal (Turkish victim) and intergroup bias-based (Syrian refugee victim) bullying. Intergroup factors and social-cognitive skills were assessed as predictors. Findings revealed that adolescents were less likely to see bullying as acceptable and less likely to explicitly support the bully in intragroup interpersonal bullying compared to intergroup bias-based bullying. Further, adolescents with higher theory of mind and empathy were more likely to evaluate intergroup bias-based bullying as less acceptable and more likely to challenge the bully. Adolescents' prejudice and discrimination towards refugees were predictors of bystander judgments and responses to intergroup bias-based bullying. This study provides implications for anti-bullying intervention programs.

Adolescents' Expectations for Types of Victim Retaliation Following Direct Bullying.

Little is known about adolescents' expectations around how victims of bullying might retaliate following victimization. These expectations are important as they may inform adolescent's own behaviors, particularly intervention behaviors, in regard to bullying and potential retaliation. This study investigated adolescents' retaliation expectations and expected bystander reactions to retaliation following physical and social bullying. Participants included 6th grade (N = 450, Mage = 11.73 years, SD = 0.84) and 9th grade (N = 446, Mage = 14.82 years) adolescents (50.2% female, 63.3% European American, 22.9% African American, 3.9% Latino/a, 7% Multiracial, 2.9% Other) from middle-to-low-income U.S. public schools. Participants responded to open-ended prompts about victim responses to bullying, rating retaliation acceptability, and likelihood of engaging in bystander behaviors. ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in retaliation expectation by type of aggression. Further, linear regressions were used to explore what factors were related to participants' expectations regarding bystander intervention. Participants expected victims to retaliate by causing harm and expected the type of retaliation to match the type of bullying. Younger participants were more specific and males were more likely to expect physical harm than females. Finally, acceptability of retaliation predicted bystander interventions. Adolescents expect aggressive retaliation suggesting that intervention might focus on teaching them ways to respond when they are bullied or observe bullying.

British Adolescents Are More Likely Than Children to Support Bystanders Who Challenge Exclusion of Immigrant Peers.

The present study examined British children's and adolescents' individual and perceived group evaluations of a challenger when a member of one's own group excludes a British national or an immigrant newcomer to the school (Turkish or Australian) from participating in a group activity. Participants included British children (n = 110, Mage in years = 9.69, SD = 1.07, 44 girls, aged 8-11) and adolescents (n = 193, Mage in years = 14.16, SD = 0.92, 104 girls, aged 13-16), who were inducted into their group and heard hypothetical scenarios in which a member of their own group expressed a desire to exclude the newcomer from joining their activity. Subsequently, participants heard that another member of the ingroup challenged the exclusionary act by stating that they should be inclusive. Children's and adolescents' individual evaluations of the bystander who challenged the social exclusion of an immigrant peer were more positive than their perceived group evaluations, recognizing that groups are often exclusionary. Only adolescents but not children differed in their individual and perceived group evaluations in the social exclusion of British peers. When the newcomer was an immigrant peer, adolescents were more likely to evaluate the challenger positively in both their individual and perceived group evaluations compared to children. Further, children, compared to adolescents, were more likely to reason about social and group norms to justify their evaluations only when the excluded peer was an immigrant but not when the excluded peer was British. Adolescents were more likely to reason about fairness, rights, and equality. The findings indicate that exclusionary group norms surrounding immigrants begin in childhood. Interventions that focus on changing group norms to be more inclusive could be effective in reducing prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants in childhood.

Theory of Mind as a Correlate of Bystanders' Reasoning About Intergroup Bullying of Syrian Refugee Youth.

The current study examined how ingroup and outgroup Theory of Mind (ToM) predicts children's and adolescents' reasoning for their acceptability judgments of intergroup bullying of Syrian refugee peers and group support of intergroup bullying. Participants included 587 Turkish middle (n = 372, M age = 12.19, SD = 1.01; 208 girls) and high school (n = 215, M age = 14.81, SD = 0.97; 142 girls) students. Participants read a bias-based bullying story with a Syrian refugee peer targeted by an ingroup Turkish peer. Then, participants rated the acceptability of bullying and group support of bullying and were presented with a reasoning question (Why?) after each acceptability question (bullying and group support of bullying). Reasoning codes included Fairness, Refugee Status/War, Prejudice and Discrimination, Harm, Prescriptive Norms, Group Functioning, and Relationship with the Bully. Participants' ingroup and outgroup ToM abilities (measured using the Strange Stories) were evaluated as predictors of reasoning. Results documented that middle school students were more likely to attribute mental states to their ingroup members compared to outgroup members while high school students' ToM performance did not differ across contexts. Further, the more unacceptable participants judged bullying to be, the more they reasoned about the bullying by referencing fairness, refugee status, discrimination, and harm. Results also documented that ingroup and outgroup ToM were positively related to attribution to fairness and participants' usage of multiple reasoning judgments while only outgroup ToM was a significant predictor of reasoning around refugee status/war, discrimination, and prejudice. The findings provide implications for intervention programs that tackle intergroup bullying by examining bystanders' social cognitive skills in a specific context.

The role of theory of mind, group membership, and apology in intergroup forgiveness among children and adolescents.

Research on forgiveness with children and adolescents is growing, yet little is known about the developmental mechanisms that underlie intergroup forgiveness in children and adolescents. In this study, youth (M = 9.39 years, SD = 1.67, N = 185, 107 female and 78 male; 54.6% European American, 20.5% African American, 8.1% Latinx, 5.9% Asian American, 3.8% multiracial, and 7.1% other) provided judgments and reasoning about forgiveness in hypothetical scenarios involving intergroup and intragroup transgressions. Participants with more sophisticated theoryof mind were more forgiving of transgressors and were more likely to differentiate their thinking about how sorry ingroup and outgroup transgressors will feel. Participants were more likely to forgive ingroup members and those that apologize than outgroup members and those who do not apologize. Results reveal that youth, especially those with more advanced theory of mind skills, have a sophisticated understanding of intergroup forgiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

But they weren't being careful! Role of theory of mind in moral judgments about victim and transgressor negligence.

Previous research showed that children are influenced not only by intentions and outcomes but also by transgressor negligence in their moral judgments. The current study investigated the role of transgressor and victim negligence on children's moral judgments. Children's false-belief theory of mind understanding (FBU ToM) was examined as a possible factor that might shape moral judgments in contexts involving negligence. Children (N = 117, Mage = 5.41 years, range = 3-8) were presented with two stories involving property damage and physical harm where negligence was manipulated and with a series of questions assessing moral judgments regarding act acceptability of the transgressor and victim, punishment, and assessments of alternative actions. FBU ToM was measured with a false-content task. Children with higher FBU ToM were more likely to consider both transgressor and victim negligence in their moral judgments across different transgressions. The findings have implications for how social cognitive abilities interact with transgressor and victim negligence in moral decisions.

Bystander responses to bias-based bullying and retaliation: Is retaliation perceived as more acceptable than bias-based bullying?

The current study examined intergroup-related and social-cognitive correlates of bystanders' acceptability judgements and their responses to bias-based bullying of immigrant peers and to possible retaliation for the bullying. Participants included 179 immigrant-origin and non-immigrant-origin youth (Mage  = 13.23; SD = 1.55; 79 immigrant-origin youth). Participants' bystander judgements and responses to bullying and retaliation were examined via a hypothetical scenario. Further, participants' intergroup attitudes towards immigrants and their social-cognitive skills were evaluated. ANOVA results showed that immigrant-origin youth judged bullying as less acceptable and retaliation as more acceptable compared to non-immigrant-origin youth, documenting that group membership is related to adolescents' judgements. A similar pattern was observed in active bystander responses. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that immigration background, intergroup process in the context of immigration, and social-cognitive skills predict bystander responses to bullying and retaliation. This study provides important implications for anti-bullying intervention programmes to overcome the negative consequences of retaliation in the escalation of aggressive behaviours.

The Role of Immigration Background, Intergroup Processes, and Social-Cognitive Skills in Bystanders' Responses to Bias-Based Bullying Toward Immigrants During Adolescence.

This study examined how intergroup processes and social-cognitive factors shape bystander responses to bias-based and general bullying. Participants included sixth and ninth graders (N = 179, M = 13.23) who evaluated how likely they would be to intervene if they observed bullying of immigrant-origin and nonimmigrant-origin peers. Adolescents' grade, intergroup attitudes, and social-cognitive abilities were evaluated as predictors of bystander responses. Nonimmigrant-origin adolescents reported that they expect they would be less likely to intervene when the victim is an immigrant-origin peer. Furthermore, participants with more intergroup contact and higher theory of mind were more likely to expect they would intervene in response to bias-based bullying. Findings have important implications for understanding factors that inform antibullying interventions that aim to tackle bias-based bullying against immigrants.

Who Is to Blame? Children's and Adults' Moral Judgments Regarding Victim and Transgressor Negligence.

Research has documented that individuals consider outcomes, intentions, and transgressor negligence when making morally relevant judgments (Nobes, Panagiotaki, & Engelhardt, 2017). However, less is known about whether individuals attend to both victim and transgressor negligence in their evaluations. The current study measured 3- to 6-year-olds (N = 70), 7- to 12-year-olds (N = 54), and adults' (N = 97, ages 18-25 years) moral judgments about scenarios in which an accidental transgression occurred involving property damage or physical harm. Participants were either assigned to conditions where the victim or the transgressor was negligent. Results revealed attention to negligence among all participants across a range of different moral judgment measures (including acceptability judgments, punishment judgments, and attributions of blame), with age-related increases in attention to negligence evident. Results provide novel evidence that children and adults consider not just outcomes and intentions, but also the role of negligence in both victims and transgressors, when making social decisions.

School and Teacher Factors That Promote Adolescents' Bystander Responses to Social Exclusion.

Schools may be one important context where adolescents learn and shape the behaviors necessary for promoting global inclusivity in adulthood. Given the importance of bystanders in halting bullying and peer aggression, the focus of this study is on both moral judgments regarding one type of bullying, social exclusion, and factors that are associated with bystander intervention. The study includes 896 adolescents, who were 6th (N = 450, M age = 11.73), and 9th (N = 446, M age = 14.82) graders, approximately evenly divided by gender. Participants were primarily European-American (63.3%). Results revealed that girls and participants who perceived better relationships between students and teachers were more likely to judge exclusion to be wrong. Further, ethnic minority participants, those who were more anxious about being rejected by their teachers and reported more teacher discrimination were less likely to judge exclusion as wrong. Participants who reported more positive student-teacher relationships, perceptions of a more positive school social environment and more prior experiences of teacher discrimination were more likely to report that they would seek help for the victim. On the other hand, participants who reported being more angry about teacher rejection, experiencing either peer or teacher discrimination, and perceiving they are excluded from opportunities at school were less likely to intervene to come to the aid of a peer who is being excluded. The results document the complex interplay of school and teacher factors in shaping adolescents' bystander responses to social exclusion. Our findings suggest that positive school climate can promote intentions to intervene. However, findings indicate that adolescents who are marginalized in their school environments, and who report experiences of rejection, exclusion or discrimination are not willing or likely to intervene to prevent others from experiencing exclusion.

The Capricious Nature of Theory of Mind: Does Mental State Understanding Depend on the Characteristics of the Target?

Using a between-groups design and random assignment, this study examined 214 Turkish children's (M = 11.66 years) mindreading and general reasoning about in-group members (Turks), similar out-group members (Syrians within Turkey) and dissimilar out-group members (Northern Europeans). Children heard four mindreading and four general reasoning stories with in-group or out-group members as targets. Whereas children's general reasoning about three groups was equivalent, accuracy of mental state inferences differed by target with more accurate mindreading of in-group targets compared to both sets of out-group targets. In this Turkish sample, mindreading of Syrian targets was the least accurate. Prejudice and perceived realistic threat predicted lower mindreading. These findings have important implications for understanding how similarity and intergroup processes play a role in children's mindreading.

Social Inclusion of Refugee and Native Peers Among Adolescents: It is the Language that Matters!

This study investigated the role of refugee status and language skills for adolescents' inclusion or exclusion decisions in hypothetical intergroup scenarios. 100 German adolescents (Mage = 13.65 years, SD = 1.93) were presented three scenarios in which groups of adolescents are planning leisure time activities, and peers from their own country (Germany) versus another country (Syrian refugees) with either good or bad German skills want to join them. Whereas adolescents' inclusion decisions did not differ between the German protagonist and the Syrian one with good German skills, the Syrian protagonist with bad German skills was less likely to be included than either of the other two. These findings have implications for understanding the role of language in adolescents' inclusion decisions.

Male Adolescents' and Young Adults' Evaluations of Interracial Exclusion in Offline and Online Settings.

While there is a growing body of research on how individuals evaluate interracial exclusion in offline settings, much less is known about evaluations of interracial exclusion in online settings. This study aimed to address this gap by examining evaluations by male adolescents and young adults (N = 151; Mage = 17.59, standard deviation = 0.50) of interracial exclusion in both online and offline settings to understand these evaluations in concert. Furthermore, participants completed measures of offline and online intergroup contact, providing new evidence that intergroup contact in online settings is an important context for learning about others. The findings indicate that participants' online and offline intergroup contacts were related. In terms of evaluations of exclusion, participants were much more likely to attribute exclusion to nonrace-based reasons in online and offline settings than to race-based reasons. Additionally, participants with higher rates of intergroup contact were more likely to perceive race-based exclusion as wrong than those with low rates of contact. The novel findings document that young men's online and offline intergroup contact shape their evaluations of interracial exclusion in online settings.

School and Family Factors Predicting Adolescent Cognition Regarding Bystander Intervention in Response to Bullying and Victim Retaliation.

Youth aggression occurs at high rates. Aggressive acts can be curbed through bystander intervention; yet, little is known about school and family factors that predict bystander intervention in response to both aggression and victim retaliation. This research examines school and family factors related to standing up to aggression and intervening before possible retaliation occurs. Participants included 6th and 9th graders (N = 896, 52.8% female), who evaluated how likely they would be to intervene if they observed aggression and if they heard the victim was planning to retaliate. Family and school factors are important predictors of bystander intervention, with higher family management, and more positive school climate associated with greater likelihood of intervention and higher feelings of social exclusion and teacher and peer discrimination associated with inactive responses to aggression and retaliation. Thus, a complex constellation of factors relate to the likelihood of intervening if someone is being victimized or considering retaliation in response to victimization. The results provide guidance and new directions for possible school- and family-based interventions to encourage bystander intervention in instances of aggression.