Co-occurrence and interrelations of victimization, cybervictimization, bullying and cyberbullying in adolescents

The objective of this work was to explore at four points in time the co-occurrence and interrelations between victimization and cybervictimization in adolescents, on the one hand, and between bullying and cyberbullying, on the other. An intentional sample of 450 students from two high schools in Parana, Entre Rios, was set up. Some 54% were male; the average age was 15.6 years. The participants answered a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Olweus Aggressors/Victims Questionnaire and the Calvete et al. Cyberbullying Questionnaire. The results indicated a low percentage of co-occurrence for victimization and cybervictimization in the four instances (5%, 3%, 4% and 4%). Regarding the degree of co-occurrence between bullying and cyberbullying, it was also low (4%, 2%, 4% and 3%). Two adjusted structural autoregressive cross-lagged models indicated that previous victimization scores were predictors of later victimization, and the same for cybervictimization, bullying and cyberbullying. Likewise, there were bidirectional effects between victimization and cybervictimization throughout the four periods, on the one hand, and between bullying and cyberbullying, on the other. However, the paths were a little more significant from victimization to cybervictimization, and more significant from cyberbullying to bullying. In the discussion these findings are analyzed from various theoretical contributions to explain interrelations. Also, we provide the limitations of this study.