Introduction

Adolescence is a crucial stage in the emergence and consolidation of fraudulent behaviours such as bullying, due to factors such as the need to belong to a peer group and the processes of constructing one's own identity. This study analyses how bullying behaviours manifest themselves among the adolescent population.

Methods

A sample of 129 adolescent students aged between 9 and 15 years old was used. The AVE test was used as a diagnostic tool to prevent, identify and treat the problem of bullying.

Results

The results show that around 24% of the sample was in a situation of victimisation or at risk of harassment, while the remaining 76% showed no signs of suffering from it. Analysis of the relationships between the different types of bullying indicated that some forms of violence appear independently: assaults, threats, social exclusion, coercion and exclusion. However, some specific associations were observed: bullying was related to assaults and threats; intimidation was linked to assaults, social exclusion and bullying; and manipulation was linked to social exclusion.

Although gender differences were not significant, it was observed that the percentage of girls who reported being victims of bullying was higher than that of boys in all types of bullying, especially in assaults, threats, intimidation, and manipulation.

Conclusions

The results reveal that bullying in adolescence is a phenomenon that can take different forms depending on gender. This highlights the need to design awareness-raising and prevention interventions against bullying during this stage of education. Furthermore, future research should delve deeper into other manifestations of peer violence, such as sexual harassment, given its relevance in the literature on adolescence.