The results of the study (Promoting Prosocial Bystander Actions; ProBACT) provided evidence for the importance of social-cognitive skills and intergroup-related factors in promoting Turkish children’s and adolescent’s prosocial bystander responses to intergroup bullying of Syrian refugee peers. More specifically, Turkish children and adolescents with higher empathy towards refugees, theory of mind towards refugees (ability to attribute mental state to refugees), justice sensitivity, positive attitudes towards refugees reported higher likelihood intervening responses when they witness the intergroup bullying of their Syrian refugee peers. Further, findings documented that when children and adolescents were surrounded by peers who were inclusive for their refugee peers, they would be more likely to stop intergroup bullying of their Syrian refugee peers. Hence, the findings of the current study generated new knowledge for future research to examine the interplay between group processes and social cognition to empower active actions towards racism and discriminatory act by bridging developmental and intergroup processes. The findings of the current study provided important insight into factors to make children and adolescents to stand up against intergroup bullying of refugees. This can reduce the bullying rates of Syrian refugee peers, and this can help Syrian refugee youth to progress in their educational paths to be better equipped for their futures to become independent individuals in the economic system. Currently, the integration of Syrian children and youth in the educational system in Turkey is a critical issue. Thus, addressing intergroup bullying should be both a societal obligation and economic responsibility for a better future for every youth. Further, anti-refugee sentiments are expected to be on the rise especially considering the current political climate. Hence, it is critical to address such anti-refugee sentiments, hate crime, and bias-based treatment by educating children and adolescents who can raise their voice to racism and can be responsible adults for the social issues impacting marginalized populations. Moreover, Turkey is one of the countries that will continue to face refuge influx evidenced by the fact that thousands of people from other countries had to flee due to the escalating war/conflict contexts in many countries. Although the current project mainly aimed to address intergroup bullying of Syrian refugees, the methodology of the project allows to adapt it to different intergroup contexts easily (e.g. intergroup bullying of Afghan youth). This also provided global implications to address bias-based treatment of refugee youth in other countries across the Europe.
