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Joint association of bullying and cyberbullying in health-related quality of life in a sample of adolescents

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Abstract

Purpose

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been analyzed in relation to multiple psychosocial and health problems. However, only a few studies have analyzed the impact of bullying and cyberbullying on HRQoL. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the level of severity of bullying and cyberbullying on HRQoL. The effects of different roles, especially the conjunctions of of victim–cybervictim and bully–victim/cyberbully–cybervictim on HRQoL, were explored.

Methods

An analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted in a region of northern Spain. Random and representative sampling was employed. The participants included 12, 285 adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age, with a mean age of 14.69 ± 1.73. The Spanish version of the KIDSCREEN-27, the Spanish version of the European bullying intervention project questionnaire (EBIPQ), and the cyberbullying triangulation questionnaire (CTQ) were employed.

Results

The prevalence of bullying victimization, cybervictimization, bullying perpetration, and cyberbullying perpetration was 12%, 8.1%, 10.4%, and 7%, respectively. Significant and negative correlations between all the dimensions of the EBIPQ and the CTQ with the KIDSCREEN-27 were found. Victimization and cybervictimization had more impact than bullying perpetration and cyberbullying perpetration, especially on psychological well-being and school environment. The mixed roles of the victim–cybervictim and victim–cybervictim/bully–cyberbully obtained lower scores than the remaining roles in all the dimensions of KIDSCREEN-27.

Conclusions

Those in mixed roles related to victimization and cybervictimization obtained the lowest scores in all HRQoL dimensions. The results enhance an understanding of the severity of the problem of bullying and cyberbullying and their impact on HRQoL.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, RTI2018-094212-B-I00: (CIBER-AACC); and by the International University of la Rioja, Project “Cyberpsychology” (Trienio Own Research Plan 4 [2017-2020]). We wish to thank the participating schools, their management teams, faculty, and, especially, the students and their families for realizing the importance of the study. We are especially grateful to the “Dirección General de Ordenación Académica e Innovación Educativa (Consejería de Educación y Cultura, Principado de Asturias, España).”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (UNIR), Avenida de la Paz, 137, 26006, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain

    Joaquín González-Cabrera, Jessica Ortega-Barón & Aitor Álvarez-Bardón

  2. Faculty of Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Tolosa Hiribidea, 70, 20018, Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain

    Juan Manuel Machimbarrena

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  1. Joaquín González-Cabrera
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Correspondence to Joaquín González-Cabrera.

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González-Cabrera, J., Machimbarrena, J.M., Ortega-Barón, J. et al. Joint association of bullying and cyberbullying in health-related quality of life in a sample of adolescents. Qual Life Res 29, 941–952 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-019-02353-z

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