Frequencies of face-to-face and cyber-victimization from grade 4 to postgraduate 2

Face-to-face bullying is an important international problem that has consequences for mental health (Nixon, 2014). This global phenomenon has been studied in previous research to better understand it. Since the widespread use of the Internet, a new form of bullying has emerged: cyberbullying (Kowalski et al., 2014; Olweus & Limber, 2018). Debates over the definition and characteristics of cyberbullying lead to widely varying prevalence rates between studies, making the concept difficult to grasp (Camerini et al., 2020). This is especially the casewhen previous when studies involving children under 12 or adolescents over 18 are rare (Vismara et al., 2022). As access to and use of digital tools evolve with age, the mean frequency of cybervictimization may differ from that of face-to-face victimization (Espinoza et al., 2020), which globally decreases with school grade levels. Moreover, previous results concerning gender differences, especially regarding victims of cyberbullying, are inconsistent. Some studies have found that girls are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying. In contrast, other studies highlight that boys are more cybervictimized than girls. Ultimately, some research shows no difference according to gender (Nixon, 2014). Therefore, the aims of this study are to compare the mean frequencies of face-to-face victimization and cybervictimization, and to investigate the effect of the school grade level and gender on these mean frequencies. A sample of 15,234 people aged between 9 to 25 years obtained by merging databased from previous studies conducted by our team will be analysed using a MANOVA and univariate tests. The results show that the mean frequency of face-to-face victimization is much higher than the frequency of cybervictimization. Furthermore, face-to-face victimization decreases with grade level, whereas cybervictimization remains stable except at the start of secondary school. Regarding gender differences, boys experience more face-to-face victimization and cybervictimization than girls, but the effect size is small.