Causas y consecuencias de la violencia entre iguales en la edad escolar
- Autores: Andrea Núñez Niebla
- Directores de la Tesis: María del Carmen Pérez Fuentes (dir. tes.), David Álvarez García (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad de Almería ( España ) en 2022
- Idioma: español
- Títulos paralelos:
- Causes and consequences of peer violence at school
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: José Jesús Gázquez Linares (presid.), María del Mar Molero Jurado (secret.), Celestino Rodríguez Pérez (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Educación por la Universidad de Almería
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: riUAL
- Resumen
- español
La presente Tesis Doctoral pretende abordar el acoso escolar, tanto desde sus causas como desde algunas de sus consecuencias. Por acoso escolar se entienden aquellas situaciones en las que uno o varios agresores ejercen intencionadamente agresiones variadas sobre una víctima (por ejemplo: insultos, burlas, amenazas, empujones, esconder cosas, etc.), de manera continuada en el tiempo y en las que existe una clara inferioridad por parte de la víctima (por ejemplo: en apoyo social, autoestima, etc.) que es la que posibilita que el maltrato sea continuado.
En primer lugar, muy pocos estudios han analizado el papel modulador del sobrepeso percibido en el efecto que tiene ser víctima de violencia por parte de sus iguales sobre la autoestima y las dificultades relacionales futuras. Los niños con sobrepeso presentan una autoestima significativamente más baja que los niños con un peso dentro de la norma, y ésta, especialmente la referida a su propio cuerpo, aumenta la probabilidad de experimentar ansiedad social. La insatisfacción con la imagen corporal, en consecuencia, parece ser un factor de riesgo de ser víctima de acoso escolar, quizá por su efecto negativo sobre la autoestima general y, con ello, sobre las dificultades de interacción social y el aislamiento, que pueden aumentar la probabilidad de ser víctima.
En segundo lugar, aunque el bullying y el cyberbullying no son formas de violencia muy distintas, ocurren en contextos distintos. Se trataría de formas de violencia entre iguales que se solapan habitualmente. De hecho, la mayor parte del efecto negativo atribuido a la cibervictimización se debería, en realidad, al solapamiento con las formas tradicionales de violencia. Este posible solapamiento entre ser víctima de violencia off-line y online ha promovido estudios que han tratado de identificar tipos de víctima en función del grado de padecimiento de estos dos tipos de violencia (ciber y tradicional). En este sentido, en esta Tesis Doctoral se pretendió identificar (i) perfiles de victimización en la adolescencia, en función del grado de padecimiento de violencia tradicional o de ciberagresiones por parte de sus iguales, así como la prevalencia de cada tipo de víctima, en una muestra de adolescentes españoles, y (ii) analizar la asociación de los perfiles de victimización obtenidos con la ansiedad social y la autoestima.
Finalmente, en tercer lugar, la investigación sobre los factores de riesgo de cibervictimización entre iguales en la adolescencia se ha centrado principalmente en el análisis de variables individuales (del propio adolescente). Sin embargo, tan importantes como las individuales parecen ser los factores contextuales. Entre los contextos con mayor impacto en el desarrollo de la personalidad del adolescente se encuentra su grupo de iguales y, dentro de ellos, los compañeros de clase. Sin embargo, el grupo-clase apenas ha sido objeto de estudio como contexto explicativo de la cibervictimización entre adolescentes.
Los resultados de los tres estudios indicaron que: (a) los adolescentes que se perciben con sobrepeso tienen, en términos generales, una mayor probabilidad de ser víctimas de agresiones o ciberagresiones por parte de otros adolescentes, así como de tener una baja autoestima y dificultades relacionales; (b) en los adolescentes que se perciben con sobrepeso, la baja autoestima es un factor de riesgo más potente de dificultades relacionales que en el resto de los adolescentes. Las diferencias en dificultades relacionales entre los adolescentes que se perciben con sobrepeso y los que no, son sustanciales cuando los niveles generales de autoestima son bajos y nulas cuando los niveles de autoestima son altos; (c) ser víctima o cibervictima de violencia entre iguales, son fenómenos distintos, pero que aparecen frecuentemente de forma conjunta; (d) tanto la victimización como la cibervictimización constituyen factores de riesgo de baja autoestima, la cual a su vez aumenta la probabilidad de tener dificultades relacionales (timidez y síntomas de ansiedad social); (e) la victimización offline tiene un mayor impacto sobre las dificultades relacionales que la cibervictimiación; (f) cuanto mayor es el nivel de victimización en el perfil de los adolescentes menor es su autoestima, siendo más fuerte esta asociación cuando predomina la violencia tradicional que la cibervictimización; (g) a pesar de que las ciberagresiones ocurren por lo general fuera del centro educativo, las características del grupo-clase al que pertenece el adolescente influyen de forma significativa en la probabilidad de que sea víctima de ciberagresiones; (h) en concreto, los adolescentes que pertenecen a grupos en los que es habitual que sus compañeros sean víctimas de violencia escolar tradicional entre estudiantes y que agredan a través del teléfono móvil e Internet, es más probable que sean víctimas de ciberagresiones.
De estos resultados, finalmente, se formularon algunas implicaciones para las prácticas educativas. Los resultados obtenidos también muestran que cuando un adolescente pertenece a un grupo-clase en el que es habitual que sus compañeros sean víctimas de violencia escolar tradicional en el centro y agresores fuera de él por medio del teléfono móvil e Internet, es más probable que ese alumno sea víctima de ciberagresiones. En consecuencia, es importante no sólo tener en cuenta el papel del alumnado como potenciales víctimas o agresores, sino también como testigos, desarrollando actitudes y conductas a favor de la víctima, en lugar de pasivas o a favor del agresor.
- English
This Doctoral Thesis addresses bullying, both from its causes and from some of its consequences. School bullying is understood as those situations in which one or more aggressors intentionally exert various aggressions on a victim over time (e.g., insults, teasing, threats, pushing, hiding things) and in which the victim is in clear inferiority (e.g., lack of social support, low self-esteem) which makes the abuse possible.
School bullying is a phenomenon in which multiple factors intervene. In order to further understand it, it is necessary to consider factors as follows: the origins, the social and cultural context, the socio-family characteristics, as well as the conditions and circumstances where that behaviors are occurring in school.
For this reason, and depending on the scientific area from which it is studied, peer violence can be looked at differently. However, it is important to differentiate between violence, in general, and school violence. The former that takes place within the educational community (e.g., between students, teachers, parents).
And this is precisely what makes it possible to consider bullying as one of the forms of school violence. Another aspect that helps to differentiate the two concepts is the frequency in which behaviors occur. If this type of action occurs only once, it is abuse or violence, while if it occurs frequently and the victim is clearly inferior, then we are facing harassment (or bullying).School bullying could be expressed in different ways depending on the form, mode and setting in which it occurs. In terms of form, one can distinguish between verbal, physical (on people or their belongings), social or relational exclusion, high psychological damage or focused on a specific aspect (e.g., race, sex). In terms of content, harassment actions can be identified due to the objective they pursue: humiliate, exclude, defame, blackmail, impersonate personality, among others. And, finally, regarding the stage, some years ago the abuse occurred face-to-face (in real, face-to-face scenarios), in a scenario where the protagonists saw each other's faces. However, increasingly, bullying is taking place in virtual settings through computers, or mobile phones, giving rise to what is known as cyberbullying.
Bullying, and its different current forms, constitutes a major problem at different levels: fundamentally for the person who suffers it, but also for their family, for the school and for society in general. Although the interest in this topic has been growing steadily in recent years, there are still many gaps to be explored. In this research we focused on three issues of special relevance and that, ultimately, were the three main objectives of this Doctoral Thesis.
First, very few studies have analyzed the modulating role of perceived overweight in the effect that being a victim of peer violence has on self-esteem and future relational difficulties. Children with overweight have a significantly lower self-esteem and self-esteem, especially regarding their own body, than children with a weight within the norm which increases the probability of experiencing social anxiety. Consequently, dissatisfaction with body image seems to be a risk factor for being a victim of bullying, perhaps due to its negative effect on general self-esteem and, with it, on difficulties in social interaction and isolation, which can increase the probability of being a victim. Therefore, our first objective was to analyze (i) the relationship between being overweight and victimization, cybervictimization, self-esteem and relational difficulties in adolescents, (ii) the association of victimization and cybervictimization with selfesteem and future relational difficulties, both in overweight students and in the rest, and (iii) the modulating role of perceived overweight in the effect that victimization and cybervictimization have on self-esteem and future relational difficulties.
Second, although bullying and cyberbullying are not very different forms of violence, they occur in different contexts. These forms of violence between equals usually overlap. In fact, most of the negative effect attributed to cybervictimization would actually be due to the overlap with traditional forms of violence. This possible overlap between being a victim of offline and online violence has been investigated to identify types of victims based on the degree of suffering experienced in these two types of violence (cyber and traditional). In this sense, in this Doctoral Thesis using a sample of Spanish adolescents, we intended to identify: (i) profiles of victimization in adolescence, depending on the degree of suffering from traditional violence or cyberaggressions by their peers, as well as the prevalence of each type of victim, and (ii) to analyze the association of the victimization profiles obtained with social anxiety and self-esteem.
Finally, research on risk factors for cybervictimization among peers in adolescence has been focused mainly on the analysis of individual variables (of the adolescent himself). However, contextual factors are as important as individual factors. Among the contexts with the greatest impact on the development of the adolescent's personality is the peer group and, within, the classmates. However, the class-group has hardly been the object of study as an explanatory context of cybervictimization among adolescents. To date, there is little research on the variability of cybervictimization between class-groups and its comparison with individual variability within groups; and on the effect of the class-group variables on the probability that the students that make it up are victims of cyber-aggressions. For this reason, the third objective of this research is to analyze the impact of classroom variables on the probability of being a victim of cyberaggression among peers in ESO students, controlling the effect of individual variables.
The results of the three studies indicated that: (a) adolescents who perceive themselves as overweight are, in general terms, more likely to be victims of aggression or cyber aggression by other adolescents, as well as to have low self-esteem and relational difficulties; (b) in adolescents who perceive themselves as overweight, low self-esteem is a more powerful risk factor for relational difficulties than for the rest of adolescents. The differences in relational difficulties between adolescents who perceive themselves as overweight and those who do not are large when the general levels of self-esteem are low and unimportant when the levels of self-esteem are high; (c) being a victim or cybervictim of peer violence, are different phenomena, but frequently appear together; (d) both victimization and cybervictimization are risk factors for low self-esteem, which in turn increases the probability of having relational difficulties (shyness and symptoms of social anxiety); (e) offline victimization has a greater impact on relational difficulties than cybervictimization; (f) the higher the level of victimization in the profile of adolescents, the lower their self-esteem, this association being stronger when traditional violence predominates than cybervictimization; (g) despite the fact that cyber-aggressions generally occur outside the school, the characteristics of the class-group to which the adolescent belongs play a significant influence on the probability of being a victim of cyberaggressions; (h) specifically, adolescents who belong to groups in which it is common for their peers to be victims of traditional school violence between students and who attack through mobile phones and the Internet, are more likely to be victims of cyber-aggressions. In summary, findings of the third study constitute further proof of the connection between offline and online socialization contexts, as well as the importance of peers and, in particular, of classmates, in the socio-emotional well-being of children.
Finally, some implications for educational practices were included. In the first place, for preventive and early detection purposes, the results of the first study suggests and warns of the importance not only of promoting a healthy diet and lifestyle but also of enhancing self-esteem and working on prejudices and attitudes towards overweight people (responsibility shared by family, school and society). Second, there is a significant degree of overlap between bullying and cyberbullying, and the attitudes, values and skills that are worked on to prevent violence in face-to-face contexts can have a positive effect on the prevention of violence in virtual contexts. However, there is a part of adolescents who are mainly cyber victims, and violence through virtual contexts presents some particular characteristics that should be specifically examined. Thirdly, from an individual point of view, social anxiety and being a victim of traditional aggression in the educational environment have been found risk factors for cybervictimization among peers, which highlights the great importance of developing social skills in children, and promote support and friendship networks among them; in this case to prevent the specific problem of cybervictimization.
The results obtained also show that when an adolescent belongs to a class-group in which it is common for their classmates to be victims of traditional school violence in the school and outside through mobile phones and the Internet, it is more likely that this student is a victim of cyber aggression. Consequently, it is important not only to take into account the role of students as potential victims or aggressors, but also as witnesses, developing attitudes and behaviors in favor of the victim, instead of passive or in favor of the aggressor.
- español
