Teachers’ and students’ perception about cyberbullying. Intervention and coping strategies in primary and secondary education

Abstract

Currently, schools face the challenge of dealing with the phenomena of cyberbullying, which is increasingly present among teenagers. This study analyses teachers’ and students’ perception of the problem, as well as the strategies that both groups use to avoid it. Its findings will allow advances in prevention and intervention in the schools. The study was conducted on 1704 primary and secondary school students and 238 teachers who completed questionnaires about cyberbullying. We used a cross-sectional descriptive method. Findings show significant differences in the motives teachers attributed to cyberbullying. These depend on the educational stage they work in, whereas, among students, it depends on the role they have in the cyberbullying: victim or aggressor. We also find differences in the intervention strategies used by teachers, depending on the type of school, educational stage, and gender. Those used the most are communicating, mediating and seeking help. For students, the predominate strategies are avoidance, protection, and reporting. Schoolchildren, in general, show little confidence in their teachers' ability to solve the problem of cyberbullying. The study highlights the importance of training teachers and providing them with action models when faced with this issue, and it points out the necessity of coordinating the efforts of both teachers and students. Actualmente los centros educativos tienen el reto de enfrentarse al fenómeno del ciberacoso, cada vez más presente entre los adolescentes. El presente estudio analiza la percepción del profesorado y del alumnado y las estrategias que ambos colectivos utilizan para afrontarlo. Su conocimiento permitirá avanzar en su prevención e intervención en las aulas. El estudio se realizó con 1.704 estudiantes de educación primaria, secundaria y 238 profesores a los que se aplicaron sendos cuestionarios sobre ciberacoso. Se utilizó un método descriptivo y transversal. Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas en las causas que el profesorado atribuye al ciberacoso según la etapa educativa donde ejerza la docencia, apareciendo en el alumnado según el rol que adopta en la situación de acoso: víctima o acosador. También se encuentran diferencias en las estrategias de intervención utilizadas por el profesorado, según la titularidad del centro, la etapa educativa y el sexo, siendo las más empleadas comunicar, mediar y buscar ayuda; en el alumnado predominan las estrategias de evitación, protección y denuncia. Los escolares en general muestran escasa confianza en el profesorado para resolver el problema del ciberacoso. Se concluye exponiendo la importancia de dotar al profesorado de formación específica y de modelos de actuación ante este fenómeno, y señalando la necesidad de coordinar los esfuerzos de docentes y estudiantes.

Trainee Teachers’ Perceptions on Cyberbullying in Educational Contexts

“…The creation of collaborative work between families and educators is needed, to overcome any type of bullying, either using the information technologies or not, inside as well as outside the school. Efforts should also be coordinated with students (Giménez Gualdo et al 2018). Teachers, students and parents need to discuss in each school what constitutes cyberbullying and how to combat it (Compton et al 2014).…”

“…The widespread use of ICTs among young people from a very early age is favoring the manifestation of new forms of risk behaviors in digital scenarios such as cyberbullying (Giménez Gualdo et al 2018;Larrañaga et al 2018). Cyberbullying has been defined as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices" (Hinduja and Patchin 2009, p. 5).…”

Cyberbullying in the Light of Challenges of School-Based Prevention

“…It is a paradox, but despite low self-evaluation, it is teachers who are first to solve the issues related with cyberbullying, as they work not only with the victims but also the witnesses, offenders and parents (Compton, Campbell and Mergler, 2014). However, the teachers believe their knowledge is insufficient and requires improvement with the support of other professionals, including police officers, researchers or NGO representatives (Zych et al, 2017;Giménez-Gualdo et al, 2018).…”

“…But educators use diverse intervention strategies which depend on the type of school, stage of education, digital literacy level, experience or type of cyberbullying. Based on these research, we can notice that there is quite a large group of parents, children and youths who, when facing e-threat to their security, ask teachers for help in the first place (Giménez-Gualdo et al, 2018). It is also indisputable that both, researchers and practitioners refer to education as the necessary element to stop cyberbullying and a base to mitigate serious negative physical and psychological consequences this type of e-threats leaves with the victims.…”

Percepción y experiencias sobre el ciberbullying en estudiantes universitarios

“…Finalmente, los resultados de este estudio confirman que el acoso escolar y el acoso cibernético son fenómenos que se presentan dentro de las instituciones de nivel superior. Si bien es cierto que existen muchos estudios acerca del Bullying o ciberbullying en estudiantes de Secundaria (Cerezo, 2009;Palacios, Polo, Felipe, León, y Fajardo, 2013;Durán-Segura y Martínez-Pecino, 2015;Garaigordobil, 2015;Garaigordobil, Martínez, y Machimbarrena, 2017;Del Rey et al 2018;Giménez et al, 2018;Yubero, et al, 2018), cuando nos referimos a la experiencia del bullying o ciberbullying en estudiantes universitarios encontramos escasas investigaciones sobre el tema. Por este motivo pretendemos realizar un estudio para conocer la percepción y la experiencia de un grupo de jóvenes universitarios con relación al ciberbullying, pues se trata de uno de los sectores poblacionales que podría verse involucrado en esta problemática.…”