Cyberbullying Among Chilean Students and the Protective Effects of Positive School Communities

ABSTRACT

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that involves the use of technology to harm other students. Most researchers have examined individual-level characteristics, but the perception of school climate and school characteristics such as type, size, and level of vulnerabilities have not been considered using multilevel methods. Using a sample of 8,237 Chilean seventh graders from 1,322 schools we examined individual- and school-level predictors of cyberbullying perpetration. Cyberbullying perpetration was predicted by prior victimization, interpersonal relationships, and gender. We found an interaction effect between interpersonal relationships and teacher support for victims. Our findings support the notion that school policies and culture can play a vital role in the prevention of cyberbullying, supporting a protective resilience model.

KEYWORDS:

• cyberbullying
• multilevel model
• prevention
• schools

Competing interests

The authors report no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Ministry of Interior of Chile for allowing access to the national data: Third National Chilean Survey on Violence in School Settings (2009).