Prevalence and patterns of traditional bullying victimization and cyber-teasing among college population in Spain

BACKGROUND: Traditional bullying victimization and the growing number of cyber-teasing victims during the last decade is a major public health concern. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between students’ experiences of traditional bullying victimization and cyber-teasing and the sociodemographic characteristics of a sample composed of college students in Spain. METHODS: In the fall of 2014, 543 sixth-grade students from southeast Spain completed an anonymous survey on their experience of both kinds of to ascertain any relationship with sociodemographic characteristics, including gender, nationality, economic problems, family conflicts and alcohol and cannabis use. RESULTS: A total of 62.2 % of the students reported to having suffered traditional bullying victimization and 52.7 % reported that they had been subject to cyber-teasing. 40.7 % of participants had been victims of traditional bullying victimization and cyber-teasing in the past 12 months. Most (65.7 %) of the victims were at the same time cyber-teasing victims; 77.6 % of cyber-teasing victims were also victimized in a different manner. Traditional bullying victimization was higher among boys than among girls, while female students were more likely to have been subjected to cyber-teasing than male students. The characteristics that most heavily influenced suffering traditional bullying victimization were economic problems, family conflicts and cannabis use. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm overlapping results in the risk factors that influence suffering both traditional bullying victimization and cyber-teasing: there was a strong influence of certain sociodemographic and individual characteristics of the college population, suggesting that specific policies are necessary to improve college students’ environment in Spain.