Work

The Impact of Lockdown in Cyberbullying in Primary Education: Transitions of Cyberbullying and Bullying

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a worldwide socio-sanitary crisis, continuing to impact societies worldwide. With many school systems shifted to online education, the current study presents a unique opportunity to investigate relevant phenomena related to serious health issues during the schooling and later in life, cyberbullying and bullying. This study began just before the COVID-19 lockdown was declared and resumed 5 months later allowing to explore 2 main objectives: first, to explore whether cyberbullying increased during the lockdown, and second, to analyze transitions from to time of bullying and cyberbullying. METHODS: = 10.81, SD = 0.85) in Ecuador. This is a quantitative longitudinal study. Cyberbullying and bullying scales were used for data collection before the lockdown in January and February 2020 (T1), and after 5 months of lockdown, at the end of the same academic year in July 2020 (T2). Descriptive, comparative and predictive analyses, a latent transition analysis was used to identify latent status of cyberbullying and bullying behavior at T1 and T2. RESULTS: The results revealed a significant increase of cyberbullying after 5 months of the lockdown. Interestingly, only a small percentage of students who were uninvolved in cyberbullying and bullying in T1 remained uninvolved in T2. CONCLUSIONS: The discussion explores the dynamics of cyberbullying involvement and examines changes in the roles and groups of bullying and cyberbullying after 5 months of lockdown. The political- and school-related implications of these findings are thoroughly discussed.

Source: Journal of School Health

DOI: 10.1111/josh.13505

Authors: Vicente J. Llorent, Carolina Seade‐Mejía, Ximena Vélez‐Calvo, Elena Nasaescu

Institutions: University of Córdoba, Universidad Nacional de Educación, Universidad del Azuay

Language: English

Topic: Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400