ABSTRACT:
This article presents part of the study Cyberbullying project - a diagnosis of the situation in Portugal, in which a questionnaire has been applied to 3,525 adolescents in the 6th, 8th and 11th levels of education to understand the incidence of the phenomenon and to analyze the processes associated with it, including the motives of the bullies, specific object of this article. As regards the reasons identified, the most relied on by bullies to justify their behavior are hedonistic reasons of joke, fun, escape from boredom as well as motives of affiliation and retaliation. Those who identify themselves as victims attribute to their aggressors motives of affiliation, hedonism and power, with emphasis, in descending order, to envy, fun, immaturity, jealousy, lack of respect, lack of affection and feelings of superiority.
Keywords:
Cyberbullying; Victims; Bullies; Reactive motives; Instrumental motives