The Prevalence of Bullying in Two Educational Centers in Melilla (Spain)
The Prevalence of Bullying in Two Educational Centers in Melilla (Spain)
ISSN: 2422-619X
[email protected]
Universidad de Buenos Aires
Argentina
Artículos
Ramón Chacón-Cuberos
Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de
Granada, España
[email protected]
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0937-1089
Received: 17 September 2020
Accepted: 19 November 2020
Abstract:
e abuse of power is a scourge that harms today?s society and is revealed through aggressive actions between perpetrators and
victims, causing direct consequences for their lives. e aim of this study is to describe the levels of bullying in two educational
centers in Melilla (Spain). A descriptive study was carried out using a sample of 227 adolescents. e Garaigordóbil ?cyberbullying?
test was used as the main instrument. e data reveal that verbal aggression is the most commonly used mode; boys use mostly
physical aggression while girls use social aggression. Physical aggression is more frequent in primary education, while social
aggression is more frequent in secondary education.
Keywords: bullying, adolescence, prevalence, education.
Resumen:
El abuso de poder es una lacra que devora la sociedad actual y que se revela a través de actuaciones agresivas entre perpetradores y
víctimas, provocando consecuencias nefastas para su vida. El objetivo de este estudio consiste en describir los niveles de bullying de
dos centros educativos de Melilla (España). Se ha realizado un estudio de tipo descriptivo con una muestra de 227 adolescentes. Se
ha empleado como principal instrumento el test ?Cyberbullying? de Garaigordóbil. Los datos revelan que la agresión verbal es la
modalidad más utilizada; los varones utilizan sobre todo la modalidad de agresión física mientras que las chicas, la agresión social.
La agresión física es más frecuente en Educación Primaria, mientras que la agresión social lo es en Educación Secundaria.
Introduction
Bullying is a social phenomenon that has been occurring for many years in every country around the world
and is characterized by an abuse of power by an individual or group against another person or persons
with the purpose of inflicting harm. It results in aggressive actions that are repeated over time and can be
physical, verbal, relational or social and psychological. e most frequent behaviors are mockery, threats,
intimidation, physical aggression, insults ( Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017; Carrascosa, Buelga, Cava and
Ortega, 2016; Lucas, Pulido and Solbes, 2011; Garaigordóbil and Oñederra, 2010; Loredo, Perea and López,
2008; Trautmann, 2008; Benitez and Justicia, 2006).
It is usually very difficult for the victim to deal with this problem, which has irreversible negative
consequences in the short and long term. e immediate effects are depression, lack of self-esteem and
self-confidence ( Mizuta, Okada, Nakamura, Yamaguchi and Ojima, 2018; Stewart, Valeri, Esposito and
Auerbach, 2018; Polo del Río, León del Barco, Fajardo Bullón, Felipe Castaño and Palacios García, 2014),
and in the long term victims may even develop suicidal ideas and substance abuse ( Canbaz and Terzi,
2018; Khuzwayo, Taylor and Connolly, 2018; Mizuta et al. 2018; Cardoso, Szlyk, Goldbach, Swank and
Zvolensky, 2018; Stewart et al. 2018; Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017). To a slight degree, it changes the
natural personality with which a person is born and therefore influences his or her behavior ( Gerenni and
Fridman, 2015). e greatest emotional loneliness and depressed mood of adolescents is in those who play
the roles of both passive and aggressive victims in situations of school violence ( Carrascosa et al. 2016). A
frequent consequence is that these victims become aggressors ( Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017; Loredo et al.
2008) and in the case of the aggressors, if not resolved in time, they may end up being habitual offenders.
Bullying is therefore considered to be a direct route to crime ( Randa and Hayes, 2018).
Several studies have argued that good relationships between students and teachers, as well as the
intermediary role of teachers in cases of harassment, have led to a decrease in peer violence ( Lucas-Molina,
Williamson, Pulido and Pérez-Albéniz, 2015; Casas, Ortega-Ruiz and Del Rey, 2015). However, we live a
very different reality; when an aggressive act occurs at an educational center, the student victims want to
receive a satisfactory response from their teachers. ey expect to be understood and defended. However,
teachers are generally not prepared to deal with such problems and their reaction is usually not adequate (
Boulton, Boulton, Down, Sanders and Craddock, 2017; Bjereld, 2018). In addition, it may be that the desire
of teachers to demonstrate how exemplary their students are, favors the adoption of a minimalist attitude
to taking action. ey oen hide problems, to the point of ignoring them, which turns out to be to the
detriment of the victim who feels alone, unprotected and powerless in the face of his or her aggressor. e
consequence of this unprotected situation is the secrecy of the victim, who suffers in silence and continuously
disguises it from teachers and parents; this fact is corroborated by Nocito Muñoz ( 2017) who shows that the
older the students, the more the problems of bullying are hidden from adults. Exposing the bullying does not
guarantee any solution either; externalizing the aggression can lead to even greater problems, as victims lose
their autonomy, feel weaker and even become afraid of possible reprisals by aggressors ( Boulton et al. 2017).
Despite the programs and measures implemented in Spanish educational centers, the data obtained in
recent studies reveal that the incidence of bullying has not decreased but has remained constant over time.
e report Yo a eso no juego (2016) published by the Save the Children association states that 9.3% of
Spanish children have suffered harassment. e results conclude that 10.6% of girls and 8% of boys are
victims. e report reveals that this violence is produced ?through direct or indirect insults, rumors, the of
belongings, threats or blows? ( Nocito Muñoz, 2017, p.107).
Of great concern are the results revealed by several studies that claim that students with specific
educational support needs are more vulnerable and tend to suffer more from bullying, especially of a social
nature ( Sánchez and Cerezo, 2010; Monjas, Martín-Antón, García Bacety y Sanchiz, 2014).
is study has the following main objectives:
· To analyze the levels of bullying, according to gender, course and typology of each center in a sample
composed of adolescents from sixth grade of primary education and first year of mandatory secondary
education in Melilla.
· To describe the roles of the different people involved, in a sample composed of adolescents from sixth
grade of primary education and first compulsory year of secondary education (CSE) in Melilla.
Non-experimental, ex-post facto, descriptive and transversal study was conducted on a single group. e
sample was made up of 227 adolescents, 45.4% of whom were boys (n = 103) and 54.6% girls (n = 124).
e age range was between 11 and 15 years (12.06 ± 0.77). For the 2017/2018 school year, a total of 2,536
students were enrolled in Melilla, with 1,165 students in the sixth year of primary education and 1,371
students in the CSE (1,371 students). e representative sample consisted of 227 schoolchildren (sampling
error of 0.05; CI = 90%). e educational centers IES Enrique Nieto (a public secondary school) and La Salle
(a semi-public school (1) participated in the study, with 46.3% (n = 105) and 53.7% (n = 122) of students,
respectively. Following the criteria of Merino-Marban, Mayorga-Vega, Fernández-Rodríguez, Estrada and
Viciana ( 2015), the selection of participants, who took part voluntarily, was made taking into account
randomization by natural groups.
Instruments
e cyberbullying test
e cyberbullying test, validated by Garaigordóbil ( 2013) in its Spanish version: this instrument offers
excellent reliability indices in its original version, specifying good stability through the Pearson?s correlation
index, with an R value above 0.65, and a high internal consistency determined through alpha-Cronbach?
s coefficient, with a value above 0.80. In this respect, it also shows adequate validity, considering content
validity given by experts, as well as construct validity, established through exploratory factor analysis of the
original scale with good adjustment indexes. Addressing its structure, this scale has 12 items linked to the
assessment of bullying and 45 items associated with cyberbullying. All of these items are distributed according
to roles (victim, aggressor or witness). For bullying, which represents the variable analyzed in this research,
this instrument measures its incidence in its different manifestations, considering physical, verbal, social
and psychological aggressions in the three mentioned roles. It should be noted that the 12 items are valued
through a Likert-type scale of four answer options, where 0 = Never and 3 = Always. From these items the
total scores for each role and manifestation can be calculated. Finally, it should be noted that this instrument
has an acceptable internal consistency and reliability in the sample of this study, with a value of ? = 0.802
for items related to bullying.
A self-registration sheet
An Ad Hoc type of questionnaire was used to record sociodemographic variables, such as gender, age,
educational center or course.
Procedure
Firstly, a meeting was held between the Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Body Expression
of the University of Granada (Spain) and the management team of the educational centers involved; in
this meeting, issues relating to the nature and objectives of the research were discussed. Aerwards, the
Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Body Expression of the University of Granada prepared a
letter of informed consent to be signed by the legal guardians of the adolescents.
Once the informed consent forms were collected, the instrument was applied. is task was carried out
with the researchers present at all times, during school hours, without any type of incident occurring.
Anonymity was assured for all students, who participated voluntarily and in accordance with the 1975
Helsinki agreement on research ethics.
Data analysis
e statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS® 22.0 soware. e basic descriptive variables were
analyzed by means of frequencies and means, while contingency tables were used for the relations between
variables. e internal reliability of the instruments used was evaluated by means of alpha-Cronbach?s
coefficient, setting the reliability index at 95.5%. e reliability was established at p < 0.05.
Results
Firstly the general data of victims, aggressors and witnesses are presented and then the relationship of each
one of them to gender, educational level and type of educational center.
As a general rule, it is worth noting that the students surveyed show themselves more as witnesses than as
victims and aggressors; very few declare themselves as aggressors.
Table 1 shows that as victims, verbal aggression is by far the most common form of aggression suffered
(37% verbal aggression vs. 14.6% physical aggression, 13.7% social aggression and 14.1% psychological
aggression). As regards aggressors, the use of verbal aggression is also detected as the most common method
to harass their peers (20.2% verbal aggression vs 6.2% physical aggression, 4% social aggression and 3.5%
psychological aggression). Both social and psychological aggression present much lower values than the other
two types. In respect of witnesses, the data on aggression are alarming for all modalities, but once again it
is verbal aggression that is most commonly seen by witnesses (59.4% verbal aggression vs 39.6% physical
aggression, 35.2% social aggression and 26.4% psychological aggression).
TABLE 1
Bullying total data (% and n) according to the type of role (victim, aggressor or witness),
type of aggression (physical, verbal, social or psychological) and frequency of aggression.
is means that aggression between peers is abundant and quite widespread among children of this age.
Verbal aggression is the most common modality used by students, both in victims, aggressors and witnesses,
although we cannot ignore the others, since the incidences are also very high.
In the cross between bullying and gender, no significant differences were found in any of the questions.
However, when asked as victims whether they had been assaulted or molested using social aggression, there
was a small tendency for girls to suffer more social aggression (16.9%) than men (9.8%) ( Table 2).
TABLE 2
Relationship between bullying and gender in victims, according to the type of
aggression (physical, verbal, social or psychological) and frequency of the aggression.
In the crossover between bullying and the type of educational center (public or semi-public), no significant
differences were found for any of the questions asked. However, in the question to witnesses about whether
they saw a colleague being physically assaulted or disturbed, a clear tendency was detected that these physical
aggressions were observed more oen in the semi-public La Salle educational center (46%) than in the
Enrique Nieto educational center (32.3%) ( Table 3).
TABLE 3
Relationship between bullying and the educational center of witnesses, according to the
type of aggression (physical, verbal, social or psychological), and frequency of aggression.
As seen from the results shown in Table 4, a significant difference was obtained in the victimization of
students in relation to physical aggression. In the sixth year of primary education there were more victims
of physical aggression (21.6%) than in the CSE (12%). e ?always? frequency range is remarkable, since no
student in the CSE was physically assaulted, while in the sixth year of primary education there were 3.3%
of students who had suffered this type of aggression. Likewise, in the ?quite oen? range, the percentage
obtained in the sixth year of primary education (3.3%) is higher than in the CSE (1.2%). e same happens in
the ?sometimes? range, where 15% of students in the sixth year of primary education were victims of physical
aggression, compared to 10.8% in the CSE.
However, when witnesses were asked about social aggression, the results indicate that in the CSE they saw
more acts of aggression of this type than in the sixth year of primary education, since in the CSE 10.2% of
the students saw ?quite oen?, while in the sixth year of primary education nobody witnessed it (0%). Given
this, although in the other modalities there is hardly any difference between the two educational levels, there
is a slight tendency for students in the CSE to see more social aggression than in the sixth year of primary
education (37.2% in the CSE and 30.0% in the sixth year of primary education).
TABLE 4
Relationship between bullying and the educational level of victims and witnesses, according to
the type of aggression (physical, verbal, social or psychological), and frequency of aggression.
Discussion
Our data reveal that more than half of the adolescents have witnessed some type of aggression and that the
type of aggression they are suffering from the most, as victims, aggressors and witnesses, is verbal aggression.
ese results have been found previously in various investigations such as those of Cerezo ( 2009), Sáenz
and Vergara ( 2016) and Triviño, Iriarte and González ( 2017) who showed that verbal aggression was the
most common for these ages.
ere is a clear tendency for social aggression to be carried out more frequently against females. In this
regard, Benítez and Justicia ( 2006), Cerezo ( 2009), Menesini and Salmivalli ( 2017) and Triviño et al. (
2017), state that girls generally tend to be victims of aggression of all kinds, while Cerezo ( 2009, p. 384) turns
this statement around by asserting that ?social exclusion is the indirect form most used by girls?. Girls then
become aggressor victims, because by being victims of this form of aggression, they also use it to attack. Social
aggression is a more subtle, invisible and indirect form of aggression than others, and for this reason women
use it more easily than men. Benítez and Justicia ( 2006), Cerezo ( 2009), Menesini and Salmivalli ( 2017)
highlight that boys are much more involved in bullying as aggressors, particularly in the form of physical
harassment. Likewise, Sáenz and Vergara ( 2016), although they state that bullying is very generalized, show
that boys attack mainly using the visible forms of intimidation. ey agree with Benítez and Justicia ( 2006),
Cerezo ( 2009), Menesini and Salmivalli ( 2017) and with Cano and Vargas ( 2018) who find that men
exercise more physical, and more direct aggression, while women are more subtle in their way of attacking,
with less visible damage. is corroborates our data on social aggression, which was found to be the form
suffered most by female victims and the most used by female aggressors, since it is a less striking form of
aggression on first sight.
Mizuta et al. ( 2018) have also revealed data that confirm that males perform aggressive acts more
frequently than females, and that girls are more oen victims than boys.
Cerezo ( 2009, p. 392) states that ?the most common forms of abuse are insults and threats, followed by
physical violence in primary school and social exclusion in secondary school?. Our data coincide with those
of the aforementioned research, since we found a clear tendency for primary education students to witness
physical aggression in greater numbers than secondary education students. Likewise, Polo del Río, Léon del
Barco, Felipe, Gómez and López Ramos ( 2011) affirm that situations of harassment occur more frequently
in semi-public schools than in public schools, as also corroborated by our study. Furthermore, these results
are complemented by those obtained relating to victimization because it was observed that there were more
victims of physical assault in the sixth year of primary education than in the CSE. On this point, our findings
agree with the study carried out by Cano and Vargas ( 2018) who observed the same differences between
the stated educational levels.
However, with regard to social aggression, our data show that the trend is for the percentage of witnesses to
be higher in the CSE. ese data confirm what Bjereld ( 2018) found, when he said that identities are created
from social interaction. When a student shows himself to others individually, these other peers act on the
perception received. In the CSE, when changing the educational level, and in many cases the school, there are
new classmates to whom a student presents his identity, and at this time the quality of the interaction with
new classmates will depend on the perception received by them. Likewise, De la Poza, Jódar and Ramírez (
2018) stated that the imitation of behavior among adolescents is something deeply rooted in the need to be
liked by others, thus bullying is normally carried out by social groups, with aggressors as the leaders, defended
and supported by their social group.
us, social aggression occurs more frequently in educational centers where the student goes for the first
time and with new classmates. For this reason, it can be deduced that social aggression is greater in the CSE
than in the sixth year of primary education, and that the opposite occurs with physical aggression.
Certain limitations of this research should be highlighted. On the one hand, the design of the study is of a
descriptive type and transversal, which does not allow for the establishing of relationships of cause and effect,
in spite of identifying the extent of a problem. In addition, the size of the sample is limited to two educational
levels from two educational centers; extending it to more levels and centers would allow the findings to be
more representative. ese provide possibilities for future research.
Conclusion
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Notes
[1] In a public school, both the administration and the financing are attributed to the state, while in these schools the
administration is private but the financing is mostly subsidized by the state, along with occasional contributions from
parents.