Teachers‘ empathy and the likelihood that they will intervene in bullying: Differences between students’ and teachers’ perspectives
- Teachers play a crucial role in bullying interventions. Recent research has suggested that empathy is particularly important for this. But two important limitations arise. Firstly, all of these findings are based on artificial bullying scenarios presented in vignettes. Secondly, the likelihood that teachers will intervene is assessed solely from the teacher’s perspective.
Based on data from 2,071 German students and their 93 teachers, the connection between teachers’ self-reported empathy and the likelihood that they will intervene in bullying was assessed using a bullying vignette as well as a retrospectively reported bullying situation that had been experienced by the teachers or the students in question. The associations were analysed in multilevel regression models from the teachers’ and the students’ perspective.
Results showed that teachers who are more empathic are more likely to report that they would intervene in a hypothetical relational bullying situation. However, this finding could not be replicated when using real,Teachers play a crucial role in bullying interventions. Recent research has suggested that empathy is particularly important for this. But two important limitations arise. Firstly, all of these findings are based on artificial bullying scenarios presented in vignettes. Secondly, the likelihood that teachers will intervene is assessed solely from the teacher’s perspective.
Based on data from 2,071 German students and their 93 teachers, the connection between teachers’ self-reported empathy and the likelihood that they will intervene in bullying was assessed using a bullying vignette as well as a retrospectively reported bullying situation that had been experienced by the teachers or the students in question. The associations were analysed in multilevel regression models from the teachers’ and the students’ perspective.
Results showed that teachers who are more empathic are more likely to report that they would intervene in a hypothetical relational bullying situation. However, this finding could not be replicated when using real, remembered bullying situations. In addition, when based on students’ perspectives, no significant associations between teachers’ empathy and their actual or intended intervention behaviour were found.
In this presentation we will discuss implications for the validity of existing research and for future research.…
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