Peers Influence Response to Threat: Cultural Norms, Reciprocity & Identity Processes in the Adolescent Caregiving System, Idaho and Washington, 2014-2017

Two years of school observations and interviews with parents, educators, and adolescents led to the creation of an application to investigate how adolescents respond when peers are threatened, and how those actions relate to cultural norms, identity and victim well-being. The resulting project attempted to address questions raised by community members and by developmental theories of caregiving and bystander intervention. Surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted with 300 7th to 12th grade adolescents, evenly divided between African American, European American, Mexican American and Native American. Five research studies are published or submitted for publication. The first study describes the specific bystander actions that victims identified as moderating or amplifying their negative emotions. The second study shows that victims experienced greater emotional well-being and social connection after bystanders calmed their emotions and helped resolve conflicts, than when bystander amplified victim anger or took revenge on behalf of the victim. The bystander perspective on those four actions is the topic of the third and fourth studies. Bystanders felt more pride, less guilt and shame, and more like a good friend when they calmed and resolved than when they amplified and avenged. Third-party resolution was followed by strong feelings of competence, while third-party revenge was often followed by feelings that actions were inconsistent with values and one's "true self." Study 5 developed a measure of adolescent honor, dignity and face norm endorsement. It shows the predicted associations with threat response and self-evaluation of responses. Implications of the results for educational practice are discussed.

经过两年对学校观察及与家长、教育工作者和青少年的访谈，我们开发了一款应用程序，旨在探究青少年在面对同龄人遭受威胁时的反应，以及这些行为与文化规范、身份认同及受害者福祉之间的关系。该项目旨在回应社区成员以及照护与旁观者干预的发展理论提出的问题。我们对300名7至12年级的青少年进行了调查和深入访谈，其中非洲裔美国、欧洲裔美国、墨西哥裔美国和美洲原住民的比例均等。已发表或提交发表的五项研究揭示了以下内容：第一项研究描述了受害者识别出的具体旁观者行为，这些行为被认定为调节或放大其负面情绪。第二项研究显示，当旁观者平息受害者的情绪并帮助解决冲突时，受害者所体验到的情绪福祉和社会联系比旁观者放大受害者愤怒或代表受害者复仇时更为积极。第三和第四项研究探讨了这四种行为的旁观者视角。当旁观者平息并解决冲突时，他们感到更多的自豪、较少的内疚和羞愧，以及更像是好朋友；而当他们放大并复仇时，则感到自己的行为与价值观和‘真实自我’不符。第五项研究开发了一套关于青少年荣誉、尊严和面子规范认同的衡量标准，并揭示了其与威胁反应及对自身反应的自我评估之间的预测性关联。讨论了研究结果对教育实践的启示。