Why Are Teachers Not Always Willing to Fight Against Cyberbullying? Exploring the Beliefs, Attitudes and Coping Strategies of Teachers in a Multi-Country Cross-Sectional Study

The increasing phenomenon of cyberbullying among adolescents in all countries needs preventive, educational, legal, and psycho-interventional measures.The present study aimed to identify the opinions of teachers about cyberbullying and their coping strategies.Material and methods: The study included 798 teachers from six countries (Italy, Portugal, Greece, Trkiye, Lithuania, and Romania).An online questionnaire was especially constructed for this research, gathering socio-demographic and job-related data along with information about teachers' opinions about the cyberbullying phenomenon, about victims and perpetrators, and their most frequent behaviors and coping strategies used to deal with the problem.The questionnaire also included 3 psychometric instruments.Results: The analysis of questionnaires revealed that even if only 38.5% of the teachers took a course on cyberbullying, more than 70% of them answered that they knew how to deal with cyberbullying.In teac hers' opinions, cyberbullying occurs equally in boys and girls.The age 11 -14 is the most exposed to bullying, while 15-18 is the most exposed to cyberbullying.More than 60% considered that students were responsible for bullying and cyberbullying.Age, gender, length of experience in the field of education, type of institution, and marital status influence cyb erbullying perceptions and coping strategies.Conclusions: Personal beliefs and the occurrence of observed and reported incidents determine teachers' willingness to intervene in cyberbu llying.The results are important for teachers and trainers to consider the teachers' role in analyzing both duties and barriers in fighting the cyberbullying phenomenon.