The variables related to cyberbullying and their influence on university dropouts

Abstract

The widespread integration of information and communication technologies in the educational field, especially at university, has not only changed the access to content and teaching methodologies, but has also influenced social relationships among students, their learning, and development. Regarding bullying, in particular, traditional forms have evolved to include novel modalities of aggressive behaviors, which can be grouped under the term of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can be defined as the process of intentional and recurrent harm to others, both at an individual and group level, aimed at students with low capacity of self-defense, and using technological media. It has not been until recently that this phenomenon has been studied in the university context, as prior research was mostly focused on elementary and secondary education. In this chapter, the concept of cyberbullying will be described, its prevalence rate in the university context will be detailed, and the causes and consequences derived from it will be analyzed, specifying the main characteristics of those involved: the bullies, the victims, and the observers. Likewise, the existence of cyberbullying is related to university dropout, based on recent studies that suggest that being a victim of this phenomenon could induce or accelerate the decision process that leads students to interrupt their university experience before graduating. Findings based on the administration of the University Violence Questionnaire (UVC) to 800 first-year students at the University of Oviedo will be presented. According to the findings, main cyberbullying behaviors can be grouped into four dimensions: private aggression, public aggression, social isolation, and identity manipulation. Additionally, a prevalence of 33.5% of students who had been victims was observed, and identity manipulation was the type with the highest prevalence. These results show a big influence of cyberbullying on the intention to drop out. Accordingly, some prevention strategies that may be of interest in the context of higher education will be described, aiming at minimizing its incidence and alleviating the damage that cyberbullying plays at a personal, social, and organizational level.