{PSOCIAL}

Bullying is a social phenomenon that has been occurring for many years in every country around the world and is characterized by an abuse of power by an individual or group against another person or persons with the purpose of inflicting harm. It results in aggressive actions that are repeated over time and can be physical, verbal, relational or social and psychological. The most frequent behaviors are mockery, threats, intimidation, physical aggression, insults (Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017; Carrascosa, Buelga, Cava and Ortega, 2016; Lucas, Pulido and Solbes, 2011; Garaigordóbil and Oñederra, 2010; Loredo, Perea and López, 2008; Trautmann, 2008; Benitez and Justicia, 2006).

It is usually very difficult for the victim to deal with this problem, which has irreversible negative consequences in the short and long term. The immediate effects are depression, lack of self-esteem and self-confidence (Mizuta, Okada, Nakamura, Yamaguchi and Ojima, 2018; Stewart, Valeri, Esposito and Auerbach, 2018; Polo del Río, León del Barco, Fajardo Bullón, Felipe Castaño and Palacios García, 2014), and in the long term victims may even develop suicidal ideas and substance abuse (Canbaz and Terzi, 2018; Khuzwayo, Taylor and Connolly, 2018; Mizuta et al. 2018; Cardoso, Szlyk, Goldbach, Swank and Zvolensky, 2018; Stewart et al. 2018; Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017). To a slight degree, it changes the natural personality with which a person is born and therefore influences his or her behavior (Gerenni and Fridman, 2015). The greatest emotional loneliness and depressed mood of adolescents is in those who play the roles of both passive and aggressive victims in situations of school violence (Carrascosa et al. 2016). A frequent consequence is that these victims become aggressors (Menesini and Salmivalli, 2017; Loredo et al. 2008) and in the case of the aggressors, if not resolved in time, they may end up being habitual offenders. Bullying is therefore considered to be a direct route to crime (Randa and Hayes, 2018).

Several studies have argued that good relationships between students and teachers, as well as the intermediary role of teachers in cases of harassment, have led to a decrease in peer violence (Lucas-Molina, Williamson, Pulido and Pérez-Albéniz, 2015; Casas, Ortega-Ruiz and Del Rey, 2015). However, we live a very different reality; when an aggressive act occurs at an educational center, the student victims want to receive a satisfactory response from their teachers. They expect to be understood and defended. However, teachers are generally not prepared to deal with such problems and their reaction is usually not adequate (Boulton, Boulton, Down, Sanders and Craddock, 2017; Bjereld, 2018). In addition, it may be that the desire of teachers to demonstrate how exemplary their students are, favors the adoption of a minimalist attitude to taking action. They often hide problems, to the point of ignoring them, which turns out to be to the detriment of the victim who feels alone, unprotected and powerless in the face of his or her aggressor. The consequence of this unprotected situation is the secrecy of the victim, who suffers in silence and continuously disguises it from teachers and parents; this fact is corroborated by Nocito Muñoz (2017) who shows that the older the students, the more the problems of bullying are hidden from adults. Exposing the bullying does not guarantee any solution either; externalizing the aggression can lead to even greater problems, as victims lose their autonomy, feel weaker and even become afraid of possible reprisals by aggressors (Boulton et al. 2017).

Despite the programs and measures implemented in Spanish educational centers, the data obtained in recent studies reveal that the incidence of bullying has not decreased but has remained constant over time. The report Yo a eso no juego (2016) published by the Save the Children association states that 9.3% of Spanish children have suffered harassment. The results conclude that 10.6% of girls and 8% of boys are victims. The report reveals that this violence is produced “through direct or indirect insults, rumors, theft of belongings, threats or blows” (Nocito Muñoz, 2017, p.107).

Of great concern are the results revealed by several studies that claim that students with specific educational support needs are more vulnerable and tend to suffer more from bullying, especially of a social nature (Sánchez and Cerezo, 2010; Monjas, Martín-Antón, García Bacety y Sanchiz, 2014).

This study has the following main objectives:

· To analyze the levels of bullying, according to gender, course and typology of each center in a sample composed of adolescents from sixth grade of primary education and first year of mandatory secondary education in Melilla.

· To describe the roles of the different people involved, in a sample composed of adolescents from sixth grade of primary education and first compulsory year of secondary education (CSE) in Melilla.

Firstly the general data of victims, aggressors and witnesses are presented and then the relationship of each one of them to gender, educational level and type of educational center.

Our data reveal that more than half of the adolescents have witnessed some type of aggression and that the type of aggression they are suffering from the most, as victims, aggressors and witnesses, is verbal aggression. These results have been found previously in various investigations such as those of Cerezo (2009), Sáenz and Vergara (2016) and Triviño, Iriarte and González (2017) who showed that verbal aggression was the most common for these ages.

There is a clear tendency for social aggression to be carried out more frequently against females. In this regard, Benítez and Justicia (2006), Cerezo (2009), Menesini and Salmivalli (2017) and Triviño et al. (2017), state that girls generally tend to be victims of aggression of all kinds, while Cerezo (2009, p. 384) turns this statement around by asserting that “social exclusion is the indirect form most used by girls”. Girls then become aggressor victims, because by being victims of this form of aggression, they also use it to attack. Social aggression is a more subtle, invisible and indirect form of aggression than others, and for this reason women use it more easily than men. Benítez and Justicia (2006), Cerezo (2009), Menesini and Salmivalli (2017) highlight that boys are much more involved in bullying as aggressors, particularly in the form of physical harassment. Likewise, Sáenz and Vergara (2016), although they state that bullying is very generalized, show that boys attack mainly using the visible forms of intimidation. They agree with Benítez and Justicia (2006), Cerezo (2009), Menesini and Salmivalli (2017) and with Cano and Vargas (2018) who find that men exercise more physical, and more direct aggression, while women are more subtle in their way of attacking, with less visible damage. This corroborates our data on social aggression, which was found to be the form suffered most by female victims and the most used by female aggressors, since it is a less striking form of aggression on first sight.

Mizuta et al. (2018) have also revealed data that confirm that males perform aggressive acts more frequently than females, and that girls are more often victims than boys.

Cerezo (2009, p. 392) states that “the most common forms of abuse are insults and threats, followed by physical violence in primary school and social exclusion in secondary school”. Our data coincide with those of the aforementioned research, since we found a clear tendency for primary education students to witness physical aggression in greater numbers than secondary education students. Likewise, Polo del Río, Léon del Barco, Felipe, Gómez and López Ramos (2011) affirm that situations of harassment occur more frequently in semi-public schools than in public schools, as also corroborated by our study. Furthermore, these results are complemented by those obtained relating to victimization because it was observed that there were more victims of physical assault in the sixth year of primary education than in the CSE. On this point, our findings agree with the study carried out by Cano and Vargas (2018) who observed the same differences between the stated educational levels.

However, with regard to social aggression, our data show that the trend is for the percentage of witnesses to be higher in the CSE. These data confirm what Bjereld (2018) found, when he said that identities are created from social interaction. When a student shows himself to others individually, these other peers act on the perception received. In the CSE, when changing the educational level, and in many cases the school, there are new classmates to whom a student presents his identity, and at this time the quality of the interaction with new classmates will depend on the perception received by them. Likewise, De la Poza, Jódar and Ramírez (2018) stated that the imitation of behavior among adolescents is something deeply rooted in the need to be liked by others, thus bullying is normally carried out by social groups, with aggressors as the leaders, defended and supported by their social group.

Thus, social aggression occurs more frequently in educational centers where the student goes for the first time and with new classmates. For this reason, it can be deduced that social aggression is greater in the CSE than in the sixth year of primary education, and that the opposite occurs with physical aggression.

Certain limitations of this research should be highlighted. On the one hand, the design of the study is of a descriptive type and transversal, which does not allow for the establishing of relationships of cause and effect, in spite of identifying the extent of a problem. In addition, the size of the sample is limited to two educational levels from two educational centers; extending it to more levels and centers would allow the findings to be more representative. These provide possibilities for future research.

The main conclusions of this study are:

· Verbal aggression is the most frequent form of bullying.

· Males attack more frequently than females and they do so mainly using the form of physical aggression.

· Females suffer bullying as victims more often than males.

· Females are mainly victims of social aggression.

· Female aggressors use subtle forms of attack, unlike males.

· Physical harassment is more frequent in primary education than in secondary education.

· Social aggression is more frequent in secondary education than in primary education.

· There is a tendency for cases of bullying to be more frequent in semi-public schools than in public ones.

Our data show that there is a lot of aggression among students in schools. They mainly declare themselves as witnesses of these acts of aggression. The numbers of witnesses have no relation to the numbers of victims and aggressors. If they are witnessing bullying, it means that there are many victims and aggressors who are hiding. Hiding these facts may be due to a lack of trust in adults. Once the adult is aware of the presence of bullying, his reaction is often inadequate for the victim, which makes the victim decide to bear his suffering in solitude and above all in absolute concealment of the reality. Society advises victims of bullying to express, exteriorize and make their problem known, but there is no guarantee that this will solve or improve the situation.

Therefore, it is essential to find the causes of these actions in students and identify the necessary elements to solve or diminish the problem. The causes may be multiple and be related firstly to the family environment and secondly to the social environment in which these students find themselves. The values that are transmitted, and the way they are transmitted in both areas, are very important in the development of attitudes that avoid these behaviors. It is necessary therefore to work on emotional intelligence and to develop the education on values in schools because, as Menesini and Salmivalli (2017) state, aggressors show lower levels of social and emotional competencies, and the development of these competencies improves students’ behavior. This education, together with parental affection, the involvement of parents in their children’s lives, the confidence of children in their parents and teachers, and dialogue and communication between parents and children are very important factors that must be nurtured in schools to avoid the harmful effects of bullying. All these elements must be taken into account in future research to reduce and solve this problem in schools.