Violence among adolescents: A study of overlapping of bullying, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, dating violence and cyberdating violence

Background: Face-to-face and virtual violence among adolescents could lead to polyvictimisation and polyaggression. More studies are needed to simultaneously analyse various types of violence to understand the extent of involvement in violence during adolescence.

Objective: This study explores the overlap of bullying, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, dating violence, and cyber dating violence, considering dating experience, gender, and stage of adolescence.

Participants and setting: This study involved 2514 Spanish middle school students (49.8 % girls) aged 11-19 years (M = 13.97, SD = 1.40).

Methods: The design of this study was cross-sectional. Data were collected through a survey.

Results: Among adolescents with no dating experience, 39.7 % were not victims, and 55.9 % were not aggressors. By contrast, among adolescents with dating experience, 7.1 % were not victims, and 10.5 % were not aggressors. Gender differences in poly-involvement were found between adolescents with and without dating experience. Girls were significantly less involved than boys as polyvictims and polyaggressors when they had no dating experience. They were significantly more involved than boys as polyvictims (9.7 %) and polyaggressors (23.9 %) in dating violence and cyber dating violence when they had dating experience. Age differences in poly-involvement were found only in adolescents with dating experience. Adolescents were more polyinvolved late than early adolescence, especially in dating violence, sexual harassment, and cyber dating violence as polyvictims (22.8 %) and polyaggressors (26.7 %).

Conclusions: Experiences of poly-involvement are diverse according to dating experience, gender, and stage of adolescence. More comprehensive peer and dating violence prevention strategies need to be designed.