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Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students

Although many studies have addressed the consequences of cyberbullying on mental health in secondary school, there is a lack of research in primary education. Moreover, most students who are cybervictims also suffer from traditional bullying, and studies on cyberbullying do not always control for th...

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Autores principales: Sidera, Francesc, Serrat, Elisabet, Rostan, Carles
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8180851/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.588209
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author Sidera, Francesc
Serrat, Elisabet
Rostan, Carles
author_facet Sidera, Francesc
Serrat, Elisabet
Rostan, Carles
author_sort Sidera, Francesc
collection PubMed
description Although many studies have addressed the consequences of cyberbullying on mental health in secondary school, there is a lack of research in primary education. Moreover, most students who are cybervictims also suffer from traditional bullying, and studies on cyberbullying do not always control for the effects of the latter. The aim of our study is therefore to address the possible effects of cyberbullying on different aspects of the life and behavior of students in Years 3 to 6 of primary school. The sample consisted of 636 students attending 38 schools, as well as their parents. Children responded to a bullying and a cyberbullying questionnaire (the EBIPQ and ECIPQ, respectively), and their parents responded to three questionnaires: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a sociodemographic questionnaire, and one on children's experiences related to bullying and cyberbullying. The results reveal that 14.4% of the children, mostly boys, had suffered at least one online aggression in the previous 2 months. Most of them were also victims of traditional bullying. In this latter group, no differences were found between the SDQ scores reported by cybervictims and those reported by non-cybervictims. In contrast, those cybervictims who were not victims of traditional bullying displayed more difficulties in relation to Conduct problems, Externalizing problems, Home-life impact, and Total difficulties on the SDQ scales. Our results show that cyberbullying affects children's lives as early as primary school, and especially boys, even in children who do not suffer from traditional bullying.
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spelling pubmed-81808512021-06-08 Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students Sidera, Francesc Serrat, Elisabet Rostan, Carles Front Public Health Public Health Although many studies have addressed the consequences of cyberbullying on mental health in secondary school, there is a lack of research in primary education. Moreover, most students who are cybervictims also suffer from traditional bullying, and studies on cyberbullying do not always control for the effects of the latter. The aim of our study is therefore to address the possible effects of cyberbullying on different aspects of the life and behavior of students in Years 3 to 6 of primary school. The sample consisted of 636 students attending 38 schools, as well as their parents. Children responded to a bullying and a cyberbullying questionnaire (the EBIPQ and ECIPQ, respectively), and their parents responded to three questionnaires: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a sociodemographic questionnaire, and one on children's experiences related to bullying and cyberbullying. The results reveal that 14.4% of the children, mostly boys, had suffered at least one online aggression in the previous 2 months. Most of them were also victims of traditional bullying. In this latter group, no differences were found between the SDQ scores reported by cybervictims and those reported by non-cybervictims. In contrast, those cybervictims who were not victims of traditional bullying displayed more difficulties in relation to Conduct problems, Externalizing problems, Home-life impact, and Total difficulties on the SDQ scales. Our results show that cyberbullying affects children's lives as early as primary school, and especially boys, even in children who do not suffer from traditional bullying. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8180851/ /pubmed/34109142 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.588209 Text en Copyright © 2021 Sidera, Serrat and Rostan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Sidera, Francesc
Serrat, Elisabet
Rostan, Carles
Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students
title Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students
title_full Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students
title_fullStr Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students
title_short Effects of Cybervictimization on the Mental Health of Primary School Students
title_sort effects of cybervictimization on the mental health of primary school students
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8180851/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.588209
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