Differential Analysis of Psychopathological Impact of Cyberbullying in University Students

The new technologies (NT) and Internet are now a part of our lives and they are even changing the way in which we relate to each other, in both a positive and a negative sense, especially among young people. One of the negative aspects is their use to harass others, a phenomenon known as Cyberbullying. The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of cyberbullying, the characteristics of victims and aggressors in a sample of university students, and to analyze the relationships between the use of Internet and the presence of psychopathological symptomatology, as well as the differences in the psychopathological dimensions in relation to the intensity of the cyberbullying, cyberaggression and gender. The participants were 1108 university students selected using a randomized cluster sample. The results demonstrate the presence of cyberbullying in our participants. No differences were found with respect to gender in the frequency of being a victim; but differences were found in this respect in the case of the aggressors, as well as there being different symptomatology profiles in males and females and according to the intensity of the aggression. The results are discussed in relation to the differences according to gender, as well as the need to carry out longitudinal studies and to design prevention and intervention programs for university campuses that are sensitive to the differences between males and females.