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Bullying, Cyberbullying, Student Life Satisfaction and the Community of Chilean Adolescents

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Abstract

Feeling support from the community is a vital aspect of adolescents’ quality of life. Negative experiences at school, such as bullying and cyberbullying can have an adverse impact on adolescents’ life satisfaction that can expand to different domains of their lives including community variables. The goal of the present study was to examine the association between peer victimization, life satisfaction and community support among Chilean adolescents. We used a sample of 497 youths enrolled in grades 9 to 12 of public and private schools in different Chilean districts. Results indicate a negative association between bullying and cyberbullying behavior on community support through life satisfaction. Peer victimization can have negative consequences for youths at a personal level on their assessments of life satisfaction, which can expand to feeling less support from the community. Feeling less support from the community can be detrimental to healthy youth development and adolescents’ quality of life. Community prevention efforts can thus provide emotional support for youth victims of bullying and cyberbullying.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Universidad del Desarrollo for funding the following research projects used for this study: (1) “Validation of a battery of instruments for the study of subjective well-being and social well-being in Chilean adolescents” and (2) “Proposal of an explanatory model of well-being in adolescents”.

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  1. Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Desarollo, Santiago, Chile

    Jorge J. Varela, Javier Guzmán, Jaime Alfaro & Fernando Reyes

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  1. Jorge J. Varela
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Varela, J.J., Guzmán, J., Alfaro, J. et al. Bullying, Cyberbullying, Student Life Satisfaction and the Community of Chilean Adolescents. Applied Research Quality Life 14, 705–720 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-018-9610-7

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