Dr Lindsey Cameron
What was this research about?
With colleagues, I wanted to find a way to encourage young people to defend peers who are being bullied or victimised through name-calling. Name-calling is the most common form of victimisation, so we wanted to see if there was a way to empower young people to help others who were victims of this behaviour.
What kind of defending behaviour were you interested in?
We were interested in whether young people could be made to feel more confident about defending someone, or helping them, when they’ve been called names in person and online.
Why is this an issue?
One of the best ways of tackling bullying is through encouraging young people to help those who are victims of bullying and victimisation, but young people are often reluctant to do this because they don’t want to become targets themselves, or they don’t know how they can help.
How did you try to encourage defending behaviour?
We used a role-play education programme, that gave young people a chance to act out and practice helping victims of name-calling. We thought this would work by increasing young people’s confidence that they could effectively intervene, through practice in a safe place.
What did you find?
We found that children in the role-play condition were more likely to say they would intervene and help a bullying victim, compared with those who did not receive the role-play training. We found this for in-person and online name-calling.
What is the take-home message from this research?
It’s really important to give young people a chance to rehearse or practice helping peers and defending in name-calling situations, as this will boost confidence in their ability to do it successfully, and increase their intentions to intervene in future name-calling incidents.