Abstract
Bullying and cyberbullying have been intensively studied in many countries, and research on the topic has been fruitful. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to advance knowledge on bullying and cyberbullying in many geographical areas and to discover their risk and protective factors. The objective of this study was to describe and compare the involvement in different bullying and cyberbullying roles in Spain and Poland, identifying risk and protective factors such as moral disengagement, social and emotional competencies, moral emotions and empathy. This study was carried out with a sample of 2535 primary and secondary school students from Spain and Poland. More bullying and cyberbullying involvement were found in Poland in comparison with Spain. Different moral disengagement mechanisms were found to be risk factors for involvement in bullying and cyberbullying in both countries. Low moral emotions were a risk factor for bullying and cyberbullying perpetration in Spain and Poland. Different social and emotional competencies were protective against bullying and cyberbullying in both countries. These results suggest the need to design and implement more programs to promote social, emotional and moral competencies in Spain and Poland to protect children against bullying and cyberbullying.
Highlights
Bullying is a long-term and frequent aggressive behavior that takes place in a peer group
Bullying and cyberbullying exist worldwide, and they have some severe consequences for individuals and societies such as serious public health problems (Craig et al, 2009), anxiety, depression (Doumas & Midgett, 2020; Ttofi et al, 2011), withdrawn behavior (Shakoor et al, 2011), psychosis (Arseneault et al, 2011), suicide ideation and suicide attempts (Van Geel et al, 2014), among others
A confirmatory factor analysis of the questionnaire showed an adequate fit of the current data to the original two-factor structure in seven items focused on perpetration (Spain) (S/B 2 = 558.0531, df = 76, p < 0.001, NFI = 0.95, NNFI = 0.94, CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.068, 90% CI = 0.062–0.073) and Poland (S/B 2 = 796.23, df = 76, p < 0.001, NFI = 0.94, NNFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.09)
Summary
Bullying is a long-term and frequent aggressive behavior that takes place in a peer group. It is an intentional act of violence with an imbalance of power between a perpetrator and a victim who cannot defend himself or herself (Ortega-Ruiz, 2010; Smith et al, 2008). Cyberbullying is a form of bullying perpetrated through electronic devices when some students send hostile and aggressive messages, post harmful photos or videos, victimizing other students (Ortega-Ruiz et al, 2016). Past research findings were inconsistent, most studies showed a steady age-related decrease in bullying, especially in victimization, which is frequently explained by more precise definitions of bullying in older children (Monks & Smith, 2006), or because they could become less vulnerable in middle childhood (Troop-Gordon, 2017). There is a developmental change in bullying and cyberbullying, but both are present already in primary school
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