Shame, empathy, coping and school safety of the bystanders in situations of bullying

Unjustified aggression is a problem that exists in schools and represents an obstacle for achieving the goals pursued by education. The goal of this article is to explain how shame, empathy, coping style and school safety discriminate between defensive and reinforcing observers in the face of a hypothetical situation of school bullying. 505 students from public, technical and federal secondary schools of the State of Sonora with ages ranging from 12 to 17 years participated in this study. Of this sample 131 were considered defenders and 374 reinforcers. The results show that the recognition of shame, affective empathy, confrontative coping and school safety explain up to 71.4% the differences between the defensive observers and the reinforcers. It is concluded that the variables considered as predictors can differentiate between the types of observers and represent a valuable contribution in the analysis of bullying as a group process.