Cyberbullying represents a relatively new form of bullying that is based on the use of information and communication technologies. In master thesis we were interested in the prevalence of cyberbullying in Slovenian adolescents and in gender differences. We researched the differences between roles in bullying (victims, bullies, victims/bullies and those who were not involved in cyberbullying) in frequency of online communication, psychosomatic symptoms and in perceived social support. We were interested in relations between psychosomatic symptoms with online communication and with social support in adolescents in different roles of cyberbullying. The data was collected in a sample of 1689 seventeen-year-old adolescents within international study “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children”. The results revealed that a minority of adolescents (5,3 percent) was involved in cyberbullying in the past two months, most in the role of bully. More boys were in the role of bully and victim/bully but there were no gender differences observed in the role of victim. We observe that victims report the highest rate of psychosomatic symptoms and the lowest family support. The results revealed some significant correlations between psychosomatic symptoms and social support in adolescents involved in cyberbullying. In victims, experiencing more and more frequent psychological symptoms is significantly predicted by lower family support and in bullies by lower classmate support. Experiencing more and more frequent somatic symptoms in victims/bullies is significantly predicted by lower classmate support. We make suggestions for further research and implementation of findings into practice. The research findings can be beneficial in prevention and intervention efforts in the field of cyberbullying.
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