Being Part of an “Intermediate Community” and Aggressive Behavior on the Net: A Study on Cyberbullying Inside the Contrade of Siena in Italy

The study investigates cyberbullying within the Contrade (singular “Contrada”) of Siena. The objective is to explore whether and how intermediate communities such as the Contrade of Siena, social bodies which are intermediate between the individual and the State, with their own rules and values, can play a protective role or increase the risk of detrimental behavior on the Net. Adolescents (N = 304) aged between 11 and 16 years completed an online questionnaire on moral disengagement [1], their relations with the Contrada, the values attributed to the Contrada, the use of social media [2], cyberbullying and cyber-victimization [3]. The study highlights that intermediate communities can have a protective function, through the values they manage to convey and represent, both to those who are part of them and to those who perceive them from the outside.