Abstract
Background. The aim of this project is to study the prevalence of cyberbullies (CB) and cybervictims (CV) and cyberbully-victims(CBV) in Italian adolescent students and a possible correlation with physical activity (PA) levels and as potential protective factor.
Methods. The Italian version of the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (ECIPQ) was used for categorized cyberbullies (CB) and cybervictims (CV). Six items of the IPAQ-A Italian version were considered to measure the PA levels.
Results. 2112 questionnaires were collected, with response rate of 80.5%. The sample reported 9% was CV only, 5% was CB only, and 6% was cyberbully-victims (CBV). The factors that are significant associated to the CV students were: female gender (OR=1.7; 95%CI:1.18-2.35); stay at middle school (OR=1.56; 95%CI:1.01-2.44); spent more than 2 hours on IT devices (OR=1.63; 95%CI:1.08-2.47). The variables significant associated to the CB students were: gender male (OR=0.51 95%CI:0.320.80); spent more than 2 hours on IT devices (OR=2.37; 95%CI:1.32-4.26); tobacco use (OR=2.55; 95%CI:1.63-3.98); an inverse proportion with the number of days spent in vigorous physical activities (OR=0.82; 95%CI:0.68-0.98). The CBV students were significant associated with a male gender (OR=0.58; 95%CI:0.38-0.89) and tobacco consumption (OR=2.22; 95%CI:1.46-3.37).
Conclusions. The physical activity at vigorous level seem to be related to less involvement in cyberaggression, so it is recommended that those responsible for training adolescents’ favour this aspect. Research on effective prevention is insufficient and evaluation of policy tools for cyberbullying intervention is a nascent research field an any prevention or intervention program could consider this factor.