Trajectories of Victimization and Bullying at University: Prevention for a Healthy and Sustainable Educational Environment

Abstract

The bullying phenomenon is both an uncomfortable reality and a serious social problem for educational community institutions. Its presence is incompatible with a healthy and sustainable education environment. The educational, psychological, and social consequences of bullying transcend the personal sphere and reach the family and work environment in adulthood. Traditionally, bullying has been studied in the compulsory educational stages. However, at present, this problem is also being addressed in higher education. The present research, which is of a transversal nature, aims to explore bullying in the Spanish university setting, along with its typology, scope, and predictive factors, from both socio-demographic and family perspectives. In this sense, we set ourselves the following objectives: (GO1) to see if university students are exposed to bullying, as well as to identify the profiles of the subjects of bullying from three dimensions (physical, relational, and verbal victimization) and (GO2) to determine whether there are trajectories of bullying in university students from the compulsory education stage to the present. Based on a descriptive quantitative methodology, this study was conducted in 10 Spanish universities. The research’s major results show that the persistence of bullying in university classrooms is of a relational and verbal nature, but is not physical. Victimization occurs mainly in women who carry out studies linked to social and legal sciences or art and the humanities. Additionally, it is observed that a spiral of relational violence is produced, perpetuating this type of aggression over time. Among other predictive factors in university students is that they have suffered relational violence during their compulsory education. These data should alert educational and health institutions about the persistence of bullying in university students to prevent it and to facilitate its early detection and treatment to eradicate this problem from higher education classrooms.

Impact of the TEI Peer Tutoring Program on Coexistence, Bullying and Cyberbullying in Spanish Schools

“…In the future, it is necessary to continue researching the comorbidity that exists between school bullying and mental health while also examining the benefits that may arise from the TEI program for promoting psychological well-being and reducing emotional problems in students. Certainly, it would also be interesting to continue researching the effects of bullying in more advanced academic stages, such as university studies [54], as well as the effectiveness of the TEI Program in that educational stage.…”

Bullying in Adolescents Practising Sport: A Structural Model Approach

“…On the other hand, the second hypothesis (H1b), the one that hypothesised that victim behaviours are associated with future bullying aggressor behaviours when not practising sport has been supported, indicating that when not practising sport or physical activity, there is a tendency to carry out future bullying aggressor behaviours when having been a victim of aggression in the past [ 64 ]. As reflected in the literature, these behaviours must be intervened upon to avoid “the spiral of violence”, where they not only occur in the adolescent stage but can transcend to the adult stage or other higher educational stages [ 11 ]. The technological context implies that these disruptive behaviours are transferred to virtual spaces [ 12 ].…”

“…In this sense, it is necessary to assess the state of affairs to find the current causes that provoke this behaviour so that academic and social authorities can work together to find an early solution [ 10 ]. These disruptive behaviours not only affect students during their compulsory education stage but can also transcend to the university or adult stage [ 11 ]. Moreover, due to technological advances, these problems caused in the school context are transferred to virtual spaces [ 12 ].…”

Research on the governance of campus bullying and prevention mechanism of students' mental health problem

“…The bullied people cannot compete with the physical strength of the bullies. Moreover, compared with the bullies, the bullied people are generally in a weak position, and unable to protect themselves and rise up to resist (Bloom et al, 2021; Gómez‐Galán et al, 2021). Figures 1 and 2 reveal that bullies are physically strong, aggressive, irritable and make bad friends.…”