Bullying/Cyberbullying en Quinto y Sexto Curso de Educación Primaria: Diferencias entre Contextos Rurales y Urbanos

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the differences between bullying and cyberbullying in rural and urban areas. The number of students who have participated in this research is 2,162: 52.7% in their 5th year of Primary Education in Spain (ages 10-11) and 47.3 % in their 6th year (ages 11-12) – 50.7% of them were living in the countryside and 49.3% in the city. Although the results showed that the impact of bullying/cyberbullying in rural and urban schools is very similar, some distinctive features have been identified: for example, in rural schools there are more victims of verbal bullying, exclusion, and cyberbullying, whereas in urban schools there is a clear trend of verbal bullying and exclusion. Depending on the context, there is also a significant pattern regarding the victims: in rural schools, victims of this type of abuse are schoolmates, but in urban schools victims and aggressors do not go to the same school. The results also show that the impact of this abuse depends on the size of the city/town where schools are located.