Cyberbullying y ajuste psicosocial y escolar en estudiantes de 5º y 6º de Educación Primaria

Resumo

It is a fact that the 21st century began with the development of new computer systems, giving way to a networked society that has led to novel contexts of interpersonal relationships, while it has laid the foundations of new behaviors of intimidation and exclusion guided by relations of power abuse. This phenomenon, commonly known at present as cyberbullying is defined as a form of harassment that involves the use of mobile phones or the Internet and other technologies to harass, threaten or intimidate someone. Cyberbullying shares many conducts with traditional harassment, although it also boasts more as anonymity, ubiquity, or fast diffusion making it more harmful. Given its recent emergence, previous studies have left open many questions concerning psychosocial and school variables, especially in preadolescence. With the intention to respond to these studies, the aim of this study is to analyze the prevalence, gender and course differences of cyberbullying and its relationship with personality, self-concept, academic goals, aggression and school anxiety in a sample of 548 students in grades 5 and 6 of primary education. The results indicate that the prevalence of cyberbullying in the last years of primary education is significant in behaviors such as sending offensive message, defamation and theft of passwords, being the greater prevalence of cyberbullying in girls. Also, the study of psychosocial and school variables provide different profiles of victims, bullies and bystanders. Thus, victims exhibit an adaptive personality, low verbal aggression, but greater anxiety about victimization, low self-concept and orientation toward achievement goals and learning lower than non involved. Bullies show an adjusted personality, little anger and school anxiety, while their goals are more oriented toward social reinforcement and self-concept is lower. Bystanders also have an adaptive personality, low school anxiety, and low self-concept and school goals. Logistic regression analysis indicate that low self-concept and academic goals are the most influential variables in predicting the three roles involved in cyberbullying. The setting found evidence discussed possible directions for future studies as well as the practical implications that can guide the development of programs to prevent cyberbullying.