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Top1. Introduction
Cyberbullying is defined as aggressive behaviors (e.g., threats and intimidation), acted by an individual or a group of individuals, carried out over time and through the use of electronic communication technologies (e.g., texting, email, social networks; Camerini et al., 2020; Giumetti & Kowalski, 2022; Vismara et al., 2022). Cyberbullying has been established as a very common phenomenon that occurs globally, as shown, for example, by the analyses of the prevalence of cyberbullying in the USA, Canada, China, and Italy (for a review see Broachado et al., 2017; Piccoli et al., 2020). Prevalence analyses typically assess the frequency of cyberbullying by considering the role of the victim of cyberbullying as well as the perpetrators and bystanders. Specifically, Brochado, Soares, and Fraga (2017) demonstrated across a review of 159 studies that cyberbullying perpetration prevalence rates ranged from 1.0% to 61.1%, whereas cyberbullying victimization rates ranged from 3.0% to 39.0% (see also Patchin, 2016). Moreover, other studies have shown that between 50 and 80% of individuals who participated in the study, reported witnessing at least one episode of cyberbullying (Olenik-Shemesh et al., 2017; Valdés-Cuervo et al., 2021; Zhu et al., 2022). In the Italian context, which is the country in which this research was carried out, 34.2% of adolescent participants in the study were victims of cyberbullying behaviors, 38.3% responded that they cyberbully others, and that 77.1% reported that they had witnessed cyberbullying behaviors (Piccoli et al., 2020).
The analysis of cyberbullying prevalence testifies to the high frequency of such a phenomenon across countries, and also provides information regarding a constituent facet of the cyberbullying phenomenon. Indeed, cyberbullying appears to be a multicomponent process which involves three distinct roles, namely victim, perpetrator, and bystander (Piccoli et al., 2020; Pozzoli & Gini, 2020; for a review see Kowalski et al., 2014). Such roles are strongly intertwined and, at least in certain cases, interchangeable. Being a victim of cyberbullying is associated with a high probability of also being a cyberbullying perpetrator as well as a bystander of cyberbullying, and vice versa (Piccoli et al., 2020; Pozzoli & Gini, 2020; Walrave & Heirman, 2011); being a bystander of cyberbullying is associated with a high probability of also being a cyberbullying perpetrator, and vice versa (Barlińska et al., 2013; Bastiaensens et al., 2016; Giumetti & Kowalski, 2022; Piccoli et al., 2020). Hence, assessing cyberbullying from the perspective of perpetrator, victim, and bystander is mandatory in order to gain an accurate representation of cyberbullying involvement in a given context.