Traditional bullying and cyberbullying in Italian secondary schools

The phenomenon of bullying linked to the scholastic world has been intensively investigated over the last 20-30 years by researchers, as demonstrated by many national and international studies present in the literature. Nevertheless, despite the fact that this phenomenon has been studied only recently, it has become, in just a few years, a much discussed and a highly well known theme of public opinion. Such a widespread interest for bullying is determined by two different factors. Firstly, bullying does not regard only school pupils, but also teachers, who often find themselves in difficulty when they have to cope with students’ aggressive behaviour. It also regards members of school staff and parents, thus demonstrating how this phenomenon involves a very large number of people. Secondly, the cases (often sensational when presented by the media) about extreme acts carried out by victims of bullies have rapidly brought about interest from public opinion and the need to intervene, so as to avoid certain episodes being repeated. The present chapter describes the diffusion and characteristics of traditional bullying and cyberbullying in Italian secondary schools, presenting data collected through the project entitled: “An investigation into forms of peer-peer bullying at schools in pre-adolescent and adolescent groups: new instruments and preventing strategies” and founded by the DAPHNE II programme(see Chapter 1). The description of these data and their discussion represent an interesting reflection for all those who are connected to the world of school: adolescents, teachers, parents, and those responsible for school policy. Through the presentation of data we shall try to overcome the sensationalist vision attributed to episodes of traditional bullying and cyberbullying in favour of a more objective description of their diffusion and of their impact in the world of adolescence