Bullying and cyberbullying: Variables that influence university dropout

Abstract

The increase in dropout rates in higher education is a phenomenon that has generated a lot of interest because of the need to deal with its economic, personal, and social consequences, and because of its prevalence, estimated around 30% in Spain. There is a similar interest in violent behavior in university classrooms, which has also been seen to have increased in recent years. Given that, and the fact that research has shown personal variables to be more influential in dropout from higher education, the aim of this study is to explore whether those students who are the victims of bullying (both traditional and cyberbullying) are closer to dropping out from their degree courses. To that end, 1,653 first-year students doing various degree courses in the north of Spain were asked to complete a questionnaire. The results of a Bayesian analysis showed that students who were victims of bullying were more likely to consider dropping out than students who were not victims of bullying. In addition, variables related to social integration (support from friends and teachers) exhibited a moderating effect. These findings raise the urgent need to include intervention strategies in relation to bullying in university plans to prevent dropout. El aumento del abandono en los estudios superiores es un fenómeno que suscita un gran interés por la necesidad de paliar los efectos económicos, personales y sociales que genera; y por su nivel de prevalencia, que informes recientes cifran en España en torno a un 30%. Algo semejante ocurre con los comportamientos violentos en las aulas universitarias, cuyo incremento se ha constatado en los últimos tiempos. Teniendo esto en cuenta, y dado que tal y como pone de manifiesto la investigación científica son las variables personales las que parecen ejercer un mayor peso en el abandono de los estudios superiores, el objetivo que este trabajo persigue es investigar si aquellos universitarios que están siendo víctimas de acoso (acoso tradicional y ciberacoso) pueden tener un mayor planteamiento de abandono de la titulación. Para ello, se implementó un cuestionario a 1.653 estudiantes de primer curso de varias titulaciones de una universidad del norte de España. Los resultados del análisis bayesiano realizado muestran que aquellos estudiantes que son víctimas de acoso, en comparación con aquellos que no lo son, se plantean abandonar sus estudios en mayor medida, teniendo además las variables relacionadas con la integración social (apoyo de amigos y profesores) un efecto moderador. Estos hallazgos plantean la urgente necesidad de incluir estrategias de intervención sobre el acoso en los planes de prevención del abandono universitario.

Cyberbullying phenomenon: an investigation among Afghan university students

“…More specifically, the results revealed that students who were victimized by CB exceeded more than 90%. This result was in line with the results found by (Bernardo et al, 2020;Ferreira et al, 2016;Kokkinos & Antoniadou, 2019;Monks et al, 2012).…”

“…Many studies have been conducted to investigate the phenomenon of CB in various contexts across the world (Alfandari, 2019;Antoniadou et al, 2016;Aricak, 2009;ARICAK et al, 2020;Ata & Adnan, 2016;Balakrishnan, 2015Balakrishnan, , 2018Bernardo et al, 2020;Bevilacqua et al, 2017;R. C. Forssell, 2020;Cáceres-Reche et al, 2019;Calvete et al, 2010;Dilmaç & Aydoǧan, 2009;Dogar, 2019;Ferreira et al, 2016;R.…”

“…Significant variations in Internet usage were found, with those who spent 2-5 hours per day online reporting being more victimized and engaging in CB than those who spent less than an hour per day online. Furthermore, Bernardo et al (2020) carried out a study on the influence of bullying and CB in students who drop out from the university level. Their findings showed that Kids who were bullied, likely to consider dropping out than students who were not bullied.…”

Relationship between Cyberbullying, Motivation and Learning Strategies, Academic Performance, and the Ability to Adapt to University

“…Most studies have focused on analyzing the effects of cyberbullying in the university population. A recent investigation [29], using a sample consisting of 1653 Spanish first-year university students, analyzed whether those university students who were victims of bullying (traditional bullying and cyberbullying) had a higher drop-out rate. The results showed that those students who were victims, compared to those who were not, considered, to a greater extent, leaving their studies, with variables being related to social integration, such as receiving support from friends and professors also having a moderating effect.…”

Vivencias iniciales en la universidad, ¿cómo afectan al planteamiento de abandono?

“…A lo largo de los últimos años, el fenómeno del abandono universitario ha sido ampliamente investigado, asumiéndose en la actualidad que se trata de un fenómeno multicausal que tiene lugar como consecuencia de la interacción entre diferentes variables. Así, algunas de las más estudiadas han sido las de tipo académico, como el rendimiento académico previo a la entrada en la etapa universitaria, el rendimiento académico en la universidad o el uso de estrategias de autorregulación (Aparicio-Chueca et al, 2019;Bernardo et al, 2015;Venuleo et al, 2016); las de carácter socioafectivo, como la adaptación social o el sentimiento de pertenencia (Bernardo et al, 2020;Brooman et al, 2012;Tinajero et al, 2020); y las del ámbito motivacional, como las expectativas previas al ingreso en la carrera (Pérez-Padilla, 2014).…”