| Bullying is reciprocally influenced by the interplay between individuals and their broader social environment. Considering the significant influence of peers on bullying and victimization during adolescence, it is important to consider the potential influence of bystanders. A particularly important group of students to understand are the students who engage in defending behavior---those children who tend to take the victim's side, support or console the victim, and/or intervene on behalf of the victim. There is lack of empirical evidence examining the personal correlates of defending behavior. This study used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify defender groups during middle school. Participants included 695 seventh and eighth grade students. Gender and grade were included in the study to examine the roles they play in determining defender class membership, and levels of hope, empathy, social self-efficacy, and school connectedness were examined to see if they differed across the defending typologies that emerged. LCA analyses yielded three defender classes based on frequency (i.e., Defender, Sometimes-Defender, Infrequent-Defender) rather than type (e.g., physical, verbal, relational). The results indicated that females were more likely to report engaging in defending behavior than males. Overall, the Defender class reported higher levels of empathy, pathways thinking, and social self-efficacy than the Sometimes-Defender and Infrequent-Defender classes. Further research and potential implications for targeted intervention are discussed. |
