Sharing Student Projects

School bullying is a serious and widespread problem that negatively affects students’ mental health and academic development (Källmén & Hallgren, 2021). While most existing research has focused on bullies and victims, the role of bystanders has been largely overlooked (Allison & Bussey, 2016). In fact, bystanders are present in most bullying incidents, and their behaviour can either exacerbate or mitigate the harm caused by bullying (Mazzone, 2020). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the psychological factors that influence bystander behaviour in school bullying and how to better support bullying interventions. This study adopted a vignette-guided qualitative design and conducted semi-structured interviews to explore participants’ perspectives. This method reduced the pressure of directly asking about personal experiences while still allowing participants to openly share meaningful insights (Palaiologou, 2017). Twelve Chinese university students from different academic levels participated in this study. As individuals who had completed their school education, university students were able to provide more mature and reflective perspectives (Fischer & Pruyne, 2003). During the interviews, participants were first presented with written vignettes and invited to discuss their views on bystander behaviour. They were then encouraged to share their suggestions for school bullying interventions. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis, which enabled the systematic identification of recurring ideas and patterns across the dataset. The findings revealed six themes of psychological factors that influence bystander behaviour. The themes related to previous experiences, self-efficacy, perceived responsibility, relationships, perceived severity, and perceived risk. While these findings are largely consistent with research conducted in Western contexts, they also reveal some unique patterns shaped by Chinese cultural values. Importantly, no single factor can independently determine bystander behaviour. Instead, these factors interact in complex ways within real-life situations. In addition, the study also identified four overarching themes of strategies to support school bullying interventions. These included empowering student bystanders, strengthening school accountability and safeguarding, enhancing teacher capacity and motivation, and engaging parents in bullying intervention. These strategies addressed different psychological factors and operate collectively across multiple levels. Together, they created an environment in which bystanders felt safer and more capable of taking action. Overall, this study contributes to the limited body of research on bystander behaviour and school bullying interventions in the Chinese context. It highlights the importance of incorporating students’ perspectives into understanding and addressing bullying. The findings further suggest that interventions should target both psychological mechanisms and cultural contexts, and should involve collaboration among students, teachers, and parents. Future research could employ more ecologically valid designs, include more diverse participant groups, and conduct cross-cultural studies and intervention evaluations to further validate and extend the present findings.

The findings of this study have the potential to generate meaningful benefits for schools, students, teachers, parents, and policymakers. Since the identified intervention strategies largely involve actions that schools can take to address bullying, schools are likely to benefit most directly. By adopting these insights, schools could improve the procedures for handling bullying incidents, making them more reliable and transparent. These improvements would contribute to a safer and more supportive school environment. Within such an environment, students would also benefit significantly. With schools implementing these strategies, students could feel safer and more supported, while developing greater confidence and skills to intervene. This, in turn, may foster a more positive school climate and help reduce the occurrence of bullying. Furthermore, teachers may also benefit. The findings could inform teacher training programmes, enabling teachers to receive more targeted training and resources. This may further enhance teachers’ confidence and ability to address bullying in practice. Parents may likewise benefit, as the study offers guidance on fostering parental involvement in anti-bullying efforts. By enhancing parent education and promoting home-school collaboration, parents may become more responsive to their children’s bullying experiences and work more effectively with schools to create a supportive environment. Finally, policymakers stand to gain as well. This study provides an evidence base that combines universality with cultural sensitivity, offering a foundation for developing anti-bullying policies and legislation that are better suited to the Chinese context. Such measures would be more comprehensive at the institutional level while remaining feasible and effective in practice. Overall, this study provides solid evidence to support multi-level anti-bullying practices and policy development, enabling multiple groups to benefit from its findings.