Cyberbullying and self-concept in physical education school children

Cyberbullying is a highly complex phenomenon resulting from the continuous and inexhaustible evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Factors are sought that are associated with this phenomenon as emotional self -efficacy, self-esteem and empathy have been shown to be. Thus, the objectives were: (1) to analyze scores on the Cyberbullying (ECIPQ) and Self -Concept (AF -5) questionnaires as a function of gender and educational stage, (2) to explore the correlations between cyberbullying and self-concept as a function of gender and educational stage. A cross-sectional study was designed with a total of 1155 participants, 48.8% boys and 51.2% girls, where 75.9% studied compulsory secondary education (CSE) and 24.1% Baccalaureate. Significant inverse mean correlations were shown between cyberbullying dimensions with total self-concept for both sexes (r = -0.15 - -0.11; p < 0.01) and for CSE students (r = -0.13 - -0.12; p < 0.01), with these correlations being observed in high school students for cybervictimization (r = -0.14; p = 0.02). Significant inverse mean correlations were observed between academic (r = -0.25 - -0.22; p < 0.01 - 0.04) and family selfconcept (r = -0.27 - -0.26; p < 0.01) with cyberbullying for both sexes and both educational stages. Direct and significant mean correlations were also shown between emotional self-concept and cyberbullying for both sexes (r = 0.19 - 0.20; p < 0.01) and for both educational stages (r = 0.17 - 0.21; p < 0.01). Self-concept is shown to be a protective factor for cyberbullying, therefore, addressing and working on it through the different dimensions can combat adolescent cyberbullying arising from the advance of technology and traditional bullying itself.