Relationships between bullying, sports practice and neuroticism. A retrospective study.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v67.114326Keywords:
Bullying; adolescents; gender; neuroticism; sport.Abstract
Introduction: One-third of the children in the world experience bullying in school with prevalences ranging from 10% to 40%. In the sport field, rates between 8.90% and 27.30% have been identified.
Objective: The present study examined the association between bullying, sports practice, and neuroticism, at the same time that it analyzed the protective role of sports and the influence of gender on the prevalence of bullying.
Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted with 208 university students. Validated questionnaires were used to assess school bullying (Autotest Cisneros) and neuroticism (NEO-FFI-3). The analysis included Mann-Whitney U tests and linear regression.
Results: Athletes experienced fewer cases of bullying than non-athletes. The Mann-Whitney U test detected significant differences between the two groups, although no differences between genders were found. A linear regression analysis showed that sports involvement reduced bullying frequency while neuroticism increased it. Both variables together accounted for 20.30% of bullying occurrence.
Discussion: The present research findings support sports participation as a protective factor against school bullying. Contrary to that, neuroticism appeared to act as a factor that increases the risk of suffering bullying. The results revealed no definitive gender differences, highlighting the need for further research.
Conclusions: According to results, participation in sports serves as a protective factor against school bullying, whereas high neuroticism seems to increase the risk to be a victim of bullying. Therefore, creating supportive sports settings seems key for the development of emotional management skills.
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