digital settings

14 May 2021

Cyberbullying is a growing problem in con­temporary society. Although the risk factors are widely studied, there has been little research focussed on the personal resources that might help prevent or reduce it. This study aimed to analyse whether core self-evaluations can mod­erate the relationship between problematic in­ternet use and cyberbullying. The participants were 456 cyberbullies aged between 12 and 18 (mean age: 15.01; SD = 1.44), extracted from an initial sample of 2085 young people. We used three self-report measures as measurement in­struments (cyberbullying perpetration: ECIP-Q; problematic internet use: IAT; core self-evalua­tions: CSE). The results show that cyberbullying perpetration relates positively to problematic in­ternet use and negatively to CSE. The moder­ation analysis highlighted the protective role of CSE only when the level of problematic internet use was not very high. These results highlight the need to implement measures at early ages to prevent problematic internet use and cyber­bullying in which working on positive personal resources is of key importance. It concludes that this problem requires comprehensive models that are broader than those currently existing, which in addition to risk factors take into con­sideration personal, familiar, and contextual fac­tors that can provide protection.


Please, cite this article as follows: Yudes, C., Rey, L., & Extremera, N. (2021). Adolescentes ciberacosadores y uso problemático de Internet: el papel protector de las autovaloraciones centrales | Adolescent cyberbullies and problematic internet use: The protective role of core self-evaluations. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 79 (279), 231-248. https://doi.org/10.22550/REP79-2-2021-07