Children’s Social Integration and Low Perception of Negative Relationships as Protectors Against Bullying and Cyberbullying

Abstract

The aim was to investigate the factors associated with the diverse bullying forms suffered by a victim (relational, aggressive and cyberbullying) by considering the mediating role of the quality of coexistence in school: social integration and perception about relationships among peers. We evaluated data about 42 schools (79.5% public) in a sample of 3,407 students (47.6% boys and 52.4% girls) from the Primary Education. The mediational analyses indicated that, to predict all the bullying forms, a greater sense of social integration and a perception of low negative relationships were mediators, and social integration was the factor that most strongly correlated with bullying, especially relational bullying. We found that the number of good friends and negative relationships together predicted social integration, and the school type predicted negative relationships and number of good friends. The implications for education programs and policy are discussed.

High school students’ perception of bullying as a phenomenon of group action

“…According to our data, 46.8% of respondents are covered by bullying, this is less than in the study [13], where coverage is about 57%, but correspond to the data obtained in the USA [1] and Spain 46% [33].…”

“…Apparently, the very positive perception of relationships in the group, as shown by a study by N. Moyano, E. Allon, H.L. Antananzas, Y. Kano [33], does not allow to predict bullying, in contrast to the perception of negative relationships. The authors emphasized that social integration, awareness of conflicts, and the number of friends act as protective factors.…”

Moral Disengagement Strategies in Online and Offline Bullying

“…Does the relationship of moral disengagement to (cyber) bullying depend on gender? Boys tend to be more involved in bullying and cyberbullying perpetration (Moyano et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2009;Zych et al, 2019). Boys have also been found to report higher overall moral disengagement (Menesini et al, 2013).…”

Cyberbullying in elementary and middle school students: A systematic review

“…First, the study of the connections between bullying and CB seem to be justified by their links and transference (Görzig & Machackova, 2015). Several studies aimed to compare the transference of bullying behaviors between online and offline contexts (11 articles), and only one studied different bullying forms (relational, aggressive and CB; Moyano, Ayllón, Antoñanzas, & Cano, 2019). Second, several studies explored how students were immersed in different CB situations from different roles (Schultze-Krumbholz, Hess, Pfetsch, & Scheithauer, 2018).…”