Bullying bystanders and emotional school engagement: The roles of rumination and depression

Abstract It is important to understand the mechanisms behind student academic engagement, as engagement in school is associated with a host of positive outcomes. As children mature, their peers become more important compared to adults in regard to their emotional engagement in school. Thus, this study sought to examine an aspect of peer relations, bullying‐related behavior, and its associations with emotional engagement in school. Additionally, this study aimed to examine the potential mediating roles of depression and rumination in the association between bystander role behaviors and emotional school engagement. With a diathesis‐stress theoretical foundation, it was hypothesized that low emotional school engagement would result from a combination of witnessing bullying and experiencing rumination and/or depression symptoms. Bystander behavior has been studied significantly less compared to bully‐ and victim‐role behaviors, despite the significant role that bystanders can play in bullying scenarios. There is a gap in the literature regarding how bystanders' behaviors in bullying situations are associated with emotional engagement in school. Further, the role(s) of rumination and depression have not been studied within these associations. The current study utilized structural equation modeling as well as double mediation analyses to investigate the associations between bystander role behaviors (assisting, defending, and outsider behaviors) and emotional engagement in school and to determine if those associations are mediated by rumination and/or depression. From a sample of 847 middle school students (47.1% female), results suggested a significant indirect effect of rumination and depression on emotional school engagement for defending and outsider behaviors, but not assisting behaviors. Additional results and implications will be discussed.