Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of

Mirian Agus; Maria Lidia Mascia; Maria Assunta Zanetti; Simona Perrone; Dolores Rollo; Maria Pietronilla Penna

doi:10.30935/cedtech/10888

Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”

Mirian Agus ¹, Maria Lidia Mascia ¹ ^* , Maria Assunta Zanetti ², Simona Perrone ³, Dolores Rollo ⁴, Maria Pietronilla Penna ¹

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CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep310

https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888

Submitted: 31 January 2021, Published Online: 07 May 2021

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Abstract

In the literature there are more and more works dealing with cyberbullying and adolescents’ perception of this phenomenon. In particular, we are interested in cyberbullying and the effects of cyberbullying on adolescent life. What is more, in 2020 the impact of COVID-19 has increased the digital presence of cyberbullying behaviours. This phenomenon is extremely complex, since it is multicomponential and multifactorial, and many components act on it. Starting with an analysis of the literature, this work offers preliminary data towards the validation of a self-reporting questionnaire; it was administered to 650 adolescents, to evaluate their perceptions of the victims of cyberbullying. The questionnaire consisted of 33 items; Principal Component Analysis was applied, which identified the dimensions resuming the items’ variability. The findings confirmed the multidimensional nature of the issue covered by the questionnaire and highlighted three psychological dimensions: Internalisation, Counterbalance and Marginalisation. The results support the structure of the questionnaire, useful to quickly collect information about adolescents’ perception of cybervictimisation. The assessment of this information might help teachers, educators, and tutors to formulate targeted interventions to combat the spread of cyberbullying aimed for example at improving emotional intelligence, starting from the construction of emotional contagion.

Keywords: cyberbullying, adolescent representations, cybervictims, assessment

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Citation

Agus, M., Mascia, M. L., Zanetti, M. A., Perrone, S., Rollo, D., & Penna, M. P. (2021). Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”. Contemporary Educational Technology, 13(3), ep310. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888

Agus, M., Mascia, M. L., Zanetti, M. A., Perrone, S., Rollo, D., and Penna, M. P. (2021). Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”. Contemporary Educational Technology, 13(3), ep310. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888

Agus M, Mascia ML, Zanetti MA, Perrone S, Rollo D, Penna MP. Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”. CONT ED TECHNOLOGY. 2021;13(3), ep310. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888

Agus, Mirian, Maria Lidia Mascia, Maria Assunta Zanetti, Simona Perrone, Dolores Rollo, and Maria Pietronilla Penna. "Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”". Contemporary Educational Technology 2021 13 no. 3 (2021): ep310. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888

Agus, Mirian et al. "Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”". Contemporary Educational Technology, vol. 13, no. 3, 2021, ep310. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888

Agus M, Mascia ML, Zanetti MA, Perrone S, Rollo D, Penna MP. Who Are the Victims of Cyberbullying? Preliminary Data Towards Validation of "Cyberbullying Victim Questionnaire”. CONT ED TECHNOLOGY. 2021;13(3):ep310. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10888