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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1569400
This article is part of the Research Topic Physical Activity Applied to Learning and Psycho-social Variables in Young People View all 22 articles
Bullying and Cyberbullying is Associated with Low Levels of Cognitive and Metacognitive Learning Strategies in Young People
Provisionally accepted
Jose Luis Solas-Martínez 
Manuel Jesús De La Torre-Cruz *
Alba Rusillo-Magdaleno 
Emilio J. Martínez-López - University of Jaén, Jaén, Andalusia, Spain
This study analysed the relationship between bullying and cyberbullying, both as victims and aggressors, and the use of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies in adolescents aged 10 to 16. A total of 1,330 Spanish students participated (48.95% boys), with an average age of 13.22 years. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was used to assess five key learning strategies: rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation. The European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (EBIP-Q) and the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (ECIP-Q) were applied to evaluate levels of bullying and cyberbullying. The association between variables was analysed through analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and binary logistic regression analysis. The findings revealed a statistically significant negative association between bullying (traditional and cyberbullying) and the use of learning strategies for both victims and aggressors. Girls were more affected, particularly in cases of cyberbullying, where they showed lower scores in rehearsal, elaboration, and metacognitive selfregulation. In contrast, boys who were bullying aggressors scored higher in critical thinking. The risk of less frequent use of learning strategies among victims increased by 1.3 times for bullying and 2 times for cyberbullying. Similarly, this risk for aggressors rose by 1.4 times for boys and 1.8 times for girls in cases of bullying, and by 2.5 times for both genders in cases of cyberbullying. The study suggests implementing specific and cooperative actions involving students, teachers, and families to strengthen the proper use of learning strategies among victims and aggressors, especially in girls involved in cyberbullying episodes.
Keywords: academic performance, adolescents, Aggressors, self-regulated learning, Victims
Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Solas-Martínez, De La Torre-Cruz, Rusillo-Magdaleno and Martínez-López. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Manuel Jesús De La Torre-Cruz, University of Jaén, Jaén, 23071, Andalusia, Spain
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