Special issue: Child protection in the digital age. Latent profiles in cyberbullying and the relationship with self-concept and achievement goals in preadolescence

Abstract

In recent years, the scientific community has taken an interest in cyberbullying research due to the emotional and educational impact on all those involved. However, the scant evidence on samples from primary education is derived from statistical methodologies focusing on the individual, which generate specific profiles rather than acting roles. The present study focuses on the profiles of cyberbullying and its variability with the levels of self-concept and academic goals, using a sample of 548 Spanish primary education students aged 10–13 (M = 10.95, SD = 0.7). After analysing the data using Latent Class Analysis and MANOVA, the profiles developed were ‘not-involved’ (38.82%), ‘moderate victimization’ (37.17%), ‘high bully-victimization’ (19.29%) and ‘low victimization’ (4.7%). In addition, the group of students with the not-involved profile scored higher on the self-concept of their relationship with their parents, in language, in mathematics and their general self-concept than the group with moderate victimization. The same pattern was also observed for learning goals. The findings have significant implications for the creation of person-centred cyberbullying prevention programmes that permit a more targeted approach to cyberbullying behaviours in order to halt its progress.