Peer bullying in students aged 11 to 13 with and without special educational needs in Extremadura (Spain)

Bullying occurs in all countries where it has been studied, causing negative effects on victims such as anxiety, low self-esteem and even depressive pictures that hinder their integration into the school environment. In Spain, one of the first studies to address peer abuse as violent behaviour in the school context was that of the Ombudsman in 1999. This study has sought to address the incidence of bullying in students with and without SEN, from the perspective of victims, witnesses and aggressors, and has also sought to reveal the most relevant characteristics of bullying situations. To this end, a questionnaire adapted from the Ombudsman-UNICEF Questionnaire (2007) was used. The sample consisted of 1077 participants (51% of boys and 49% of girls) between 11 and 13 years of 34 compulsory education centres in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura (Spain). The Chi-Square test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyse the difference for meanings below 0.05. The results confirm that students with SEN are more vulnerable to bullying by their peers.