Mareike Brehmer

• Brehmer, Mareike & Meyer, Jennifer (2024). Confronting the Bullies, Comforting the Victim, or Reporting to University Staff? Prosocial Intentions Towards Social Exclusion in University Students. International Journal of Bullying Prevention. ISSN 2523-3653. doi: 10.1007/s42380-024-00248-3.
• Brehmer, Mareike (2023). Perceived Moral Norms in an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting University Students’ Bystander Intentions toward Relational Bullying. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education. ISSN 2174-8144. 13(7), p. 1202–1218. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe13070089. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Relational forms of bullying, such as social exclusion, are prevalent among students in higher education (HE) and pose challenges to the creation of a safe and inclusive learning environment for young adults. Based on research showing how bystanders in bullying incidents can counteract bullying effectively, the present study investigated the extent to which bystanders’ prosocial behavioral intentions may be predicted using an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). Students’ behavioral intentions toward the physical–social exclusion of peers in a hypothetical group work setting were investigated in a sample of 419 university students in the United Kingdom. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that moral norms significantly predicted intention over and above cognitive attitude, descriptive norms, and perceived behavioral control. In contrast, emotional attitudes and injunctive norms were not significant predictors of intention. Moreover, significant weak mediation effects could be shown for moral norms as a mediator of the relationships between standard TPB predictors and intention. The present study contributes knowledge to the growing research body on applications of the TPB and on bystander intentions in bullying in HE. Implications for a development in preventive measures to foster university students’ prosocial intentions toward bullying are discussed.

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• Brehmer, Mareike & Endresen-Maharaj, Kristin (2024). Presentation of ValiDE: Values in Democratic Education.
• Brehmer, Mareike (2024). Values in democracy education.
• Demeshkant, Nataliia; Schnebel, Stefanie; Potyrala, Katarzyna; Brehmer, Mareike; Rapp, Hilke & Kristiansen, Aslaug [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2023). Partnership in cooperation for value based democracy education in primary education – preliminary results after first edition of the VALIDE international project students’ exchange program.
• Schnebel, Stefanie; Visotschnig, Marion; Brehmer, Mareike; Demeshkant, Nataliia & Endresen, Kristin (2023). Values in Democracy Education -Integrating a Joint Study Program in Teacher Education to Foster Teacher Students’ Competencies and Beliefs.
• Brehmer, Mareike & Meyer, Jennifer (2023). University students' behavioural intentions towards social exclusion.
• Brehmer, Mareike & Meyer, Jennifer (2023). The moral dimension of university students' behavioural intentions towards social exclusion.
• Brehmer, Mareike & Meyer, Jennifer (2023). An extended Theory of Planned Behaviour to predict university students' intentions towards social exclusion. Show summary

  Introduction Social exclusion from group activities is a prevalent issue among students in higher education and poses challenges to the creation of a safe and inclusive learning environment. We conceptually replicated and extended a study by Hayashi and Tahmasbi (2021) to investigate to what extent the Theory of Planned Behaviour may predict university students’ behavioural intention towards in-person peer social exclusion in a hypothetical group work setting. Relevance Social exclusion describes an individual purposefully being left out of a group setting (Williams & Govan, 2013). The ways onlooking people react to social exclusion and other bullying incidents are various (e. g. Salmivalli, 2014; Bauman et al., 2020; Harrison et al., 2022). Assertive onlookers intervene in a situation in a prosocial way and can influence group norms (Abbott & Cameron, 2014). The present study will enhance knowledge about factors predicting prosocial and antisocial behavioural intentions to intervene in a hypothetical situation with the aim to support resource-oriented pedagogical work in higher education (Lambe & Craig, 2020). Fostering factors which contribute to prosocial behavioural intentions in students may contribute to their acting as assertive onlookers who challenge antisocial behaviours among their fellow students and encourage a safe social environment from within the peer group. Theoretical background The Theory of Planned Behaviour assumes that a person’s attitudes towards a behaviour, their subjective norms deriving from significant others, and their perceived behavioural control predict their intention to execute the behaviour in question (Ajzen, 2012). The intention is considered a proxy and the most reliable predictor of behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). The Theory of Planned Behaviour is open to extensions and several potential predictors have been examined previously. In the above mentioned study by Hayashi and Tahmasbi (2021) empathy and anticipated regret were found to be significant predictors of intention, over and above the standard variables. Hypotheses In line with their conceptualisation, we included these in our replication study and hypothesised the following for preliminary analyses: H1a-1c: The more positive the attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, the likelier a person intends to intervene H2: Higher empathic concern will significantly predict intention over and above attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control H3: Higher anticipated regret will significantly predict intention over and above attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Methods and sample We collected data using an online questionnaire distributed to undergraduate students. The final sample consisted of N=420 undergraduate students (MAge= 22.76 years, SDAge= 4.02 years; 47.0% male, 50.6 % female, 2.4 % other). Following a text describing a hypothetical group work situation asking participants to imagine being an onlooker of social exclusion, the intention to intervene (4 items, α =.90), attitude (7 items, α =.77), subjective norms (6 items, α =.77), perceived behavioural control (5 items, α=.76), Davis’ (1980) empathic concern (7 items, α=.80) and Hayashi and Tahmasbi ‘s (2021) anticipated regret (2 items, r=.74**) were assessed. Preliminary analyses and results Preliminary regression analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS 28. The data supported H1a-1c, indicating that attitude (ß=.312), subjective norms (ß=.220) and perceived behavioural control (ß=.252) were significant (all p

• Brehmer, Mareike & Meyer, Jennifer (2022). The moral dimension of young bystanders' intentions: an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour - A pilot study.
• Brehmer, Mareike & Meyer, Jennifer (2022). The role of moral norms in the prediction of adolescents' bystander intentions.

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