Predictors of traditional and cyberbullying: same or different causal pathways?

Researchers who have studied bullying have recently found different modalities by which acts of aggression are carried out (Brighi, Guarini, Genta, 2009; Raskaukas & Stoltz, 2007); the main distinction that emerges in the literature is between “traditional bullying” (direct, physical and indirect, relational) and “cyberbullying” which is carried on through acts of aggression employing the tools of the new technologies like, for example, mobile phones (calls, SMS and video messages) or the Internet (e-mails, instantaneous messaging, chat rooms, blogs)(Smith et al. 2006). Our study aims at investigating the role of psychosocial predictors of victimization across direct, indirect and cyberbullying among males and females adolescents. Results show a puzzling picture, with elements of continuity as well of discontinuity between real and virtual contexts.