Education, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Epidemiology, Artificial Intelligence
13
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
The Mediation (Emotional Self-Control) and Moderation (Fun) of the Relationship Between Receiving and Perpetrating Hate Speech Among Boys and Girls in Almeria (Spain) Francisco Villegas Lirola, Pilar Rodriguez Martinez Social Sciences, 2025 This article presents an analysis of the mediation and moderation of the suffering and perpetration of hate speech among adolescents in Almería (Spain), taking into account gender differences. For this purpose, data from a questionnaire completed by secondary school students (N = 535) in four schools in Almería (Spain) was analyzed. For the analysis, an index of emotional self-control was constructed and introduced as a mediator between receiving hate speech and perpetrating it. In addition, the moderating role of revenge and fun motives in this relationship was analyzed, finding that the revenge motive is not significant and the fun motive is significant (for boys). The results suggest that receiving hate speech does not mean that one commits hate speech. It occurs when there is a low level of self-control and increases (for boys) when hate speech is perceived as fun. Therefore, we can say that for both boys and girls, it is necessary to improve emotional self-control. In addition, toxic masculinity is related to low emotional self-control, but is loaded with the view that hate speech is funny.
Emergence and Development of a News Hate Cycle About Immigrants: The Case of Immigrants Transferred from the Canary Islands to the Spanish Mainland Pilar Rodriguez Martínez, Antonia Sánchez Villanueva, Pilar Rios Campos, Lucía Martinez Joya, Antonio Jesús Segura Sánchez, Joaquín Jaime Sánchez Espinosa, Francisco Villegas Lirola, Maria Carmen López Berlanga Journalism and Media, 2025 In this article, we present the findings of research focused on the emergence and development of an immigration-related news hate cycle in Spain. During the period from 24 to 29 October 2023, there was an unusual increase in social media posts about the Spanish government’s transfer of immigrants from the Canary Islands to the Spanish mainland. Based on the monitoring of 918 posts collected through AI media-monitoring software (Determ d.o.o), our study identify how hate speech against immigrants was generated and spread. In particular, we aim to identify the main actors and influencers involved in its creation, dissemination, and transformation, and how these actors manipulate interpretative frameworks by introducing arguments about a supposed comparative grievance between the Spanish people and immigrants in order to foment hatred and strengthen attitudes of rejection towards immigrants, presenting them as invaders, criminals, and terrorists. In this news cycle, hate speech reaches its peak when the press of trustworthy information echoes the disinformation. The analysis of the actors involved and the temporal sequence on social media and websites reveals how they achieve this. It also allows us to develop tools to counter the spread of hate speech.
Asymmetric and sexist polarization: political self-positioning as a moderator of the relationship between extremism and the justification of violence among adolescents Francisco Villegas Lirola, Pilar Rodriguez Martinez, Antonio Jesus Segura Sánchez, Lucia Martinez Joya Frontiers in Political Science, 2025 In this paper, we present the results of a study on violent extremism and political self-positioning of adolescents in the province of Almerí (Spain). This research is based on a questionnaire conducted in secondary schools in Almerí (4) and Madrid (1) in May 2022. We tried to answer the following questions: are social extremism and the justification of violent illegal acts related? To what extent does political self-positioning moderate the relationship between extremism and the justification of violence among Alpha Generation adolescents? Does this occur in the same way for boys and girls? We proceeded to adapt and validate a scale of violent extremism. For a sample of 1,170 students aged 12–19 years, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted for a multicategorical moderator variable. The results indicate that political polarization among adolescents does not manifest itself in the same way for those who identify with the most radical ideologies on the political spectrum. The endorsement of pro-violence attitudes is a notable phenomenon, particularly among boys who align with the political extreme right.
Relevant Factors in the Schooling of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Early Childhood Education Francisco Villegas Lirola, Antonio Codina Sánchez Brain Sciences, 2024 Background: Educational professionals face significant challenges in determining the most appropriate educational placement for each child with ASD, which is a major concern for their parents. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors in the development of students with ASD (language development, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development) that are most relevant in determining the modalities of schooling in early childhood education. Methods: A total of 381 Psychopedagogical Evaluation Reports from students with ASD aged 3 to 5 years were reviewed. The importance of each variable was identified using artificial neural network analysis. Classification trees were used to determine their distribution in the two schooling modalities. Results: A total of 42.9% of boys aged 3–5 years with ASD and 54.12% of girls aged 3–5 years with ASD were enrolled in specific modalities. Conclusions: Cognitive development and comprehensive language were the two variables that best explained whether children with ASD were educated in specific or ordinary modalities. The presence of a significantly impaired level of cognitive development was the best predictor of schooling in specific modalities, and for the rest of the cognitive levels, the greater the difficulties in comprehensive language, the greater the likelihood of schooling in specific modalities.
Gender Effects of Social Network Use Among Secondary School Adolescents in Spain: Extremist and Pro-Violence Attitudes Pilar Rodríguez Martínez, Francisco Villegas Lirola, Janara Sousa Feminist Criminology, 2024 This paper presents the results of a questionnaire-based study of adolescents in secondary schools in Almería and Madrid ( n = 1135), Spain. Based on scales developed and tested by Ozer and Bertelsen (2018), we investigate whether social media use correlates with self-reported extremist and pro-violence attitudes. We analyze the results of a moderation analysis on the rates of extremism and pro-violence, as well as illegal acts, in relation to social media use. We find that boys use social media more than girls, and that greater social media use does not correlate with adolescents being more extremist, but rather more pro-violence.
Emotional Intelligence Profiles and Cyber-Victimization in Secondary School Students: A Multilevel Analysis Francisco Villegas-Lirola Education Sciences, 2024 The research examined how different profiles of emotional intelligence (attention, clarity, and emotional regulation) act as protective or risk factors against cyber-victimization, taking into account individual and behavioral variables such as gender, sexual orientation, self-esteem, social anxiety, Internet risk, and parental control among high school students (11–18 years). A simulated sample was used, which was derived from an experimental sample of 1908 subjects (50.7% girls). Statistical equivalence was ensured between the two samples, and a multilevel analysis was conducted using the emotional intelligence profiles as the grouping variable. The results showed that the variability in emotional intelligence profiles predicted 96.7% of the variability of cyber-victimization. Factors that increase this likelihood include excessive interpersonal attention and low emotional regulation, higher social anxiety, offline victimization, older age, high parental supervision, and low self-esteem. In addition, being male and heterosexual is associated with a lower risk of cyber-victimization than being female and non-heterosexual. In general, it is suggested that protective measures against cyber-victimization should warn about the risk of Internet use, avoid paternalistic behavior by adults, and reduce rumination or excessive attention to the opinions of others.
Intersectionality on the perception of health in two cross-national surveys (WVS and EVS) Pilar Rodriguez Martinez, Francisco Villegas Lirola Heliyon, 2024 This article focuses on the health perceptions of people across social strata and nations using the combined dataset of the World Values Survey and the European Values Study (EVS/WVS). An intercategorical intersectional analysis model was developed to examine the social determinants underlying differences in health perceptions. Using logistic regression of the interactions between sex, age, level of educational attainment and income, we calculated the impact of these variables (main effects) and their interactions within the intersecting categories on health perceptions. The group with the best perception of their health includes men aged 16-49, with a high income and an upper-middle level of education. Comparative analysis has been carried out to identify differences in the influence of intersectional categories across countries. Of particular relevance is the number of Eastern European countries where the perception of people aged 50 and over with low income is very poor.
Adaptación y validación de las Escalas de Extremismo y Pro-violencia y actos ilegales para adolescentes en España Francisco Villegas Lirola, Pilar Rodríguez Martínez Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 2024 Introduction. Extremism and justifying of violent and illegal acts among young people is one of the major concerns of democratic societies. We found no instrument measuring violent extremism among youth in Spain. The purpose of this study is to validate and assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the scales of extremism and the use of violence and illegal acts (Ozer & Bertelsen, 2018). Method. A sample of 1135 secondary school students was used to validate both scales. Subsequently, a Social Extremism Index and a Justification of Violence and Illegality Index were developed to identify patterns of violent extremism risk. Results. The construct validity of the two scales was tested by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA): Extremism Scale (CFI: .934, TLI: .919, NFI: .918, RMSEA: .050) and Pro-violence, and Illegal Acts in Relation to Extremism Scale (CFI: .990, TLI: .985, NFI: .990, RMSEA: .050). The scale of pro-violence and illegal acts in relation to extremism has been changed. After verifying the good fit of the revised scales (CFA, reliability analysis, and factorial invariance analysis), social extremism index and justification of violent illegal acts were calculated based on their direct and centile scores. The usefulness of the scales was confirmed by the characterization of the sample analyzed, which revealed that 15.59% (177) of the participants exhibited high or very high levels of violent extremism. Discussion and conclusion. The Spanish adaptation of the scale proposed by Ozer and Bertelson (2018) is useful for identifying the risk profile of social-extremism and the degree of justification of violent-illegal acts among young Spanish secondary school students.
Hate-Speech Countering by Immigrant and Pro-Immigrant Associations in Almeria (Spain) Pilar Rodriguez Martinez, Lucía Martinez Joya, Francisco Villegas Lirola Social Sciences, 2024 In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in anti-immigrant hate speech on social media. Drawing on interviews with 15 immigrant associations and 11 pro-immigrant associations in the southern Spanish province of Almería, as well as digital ethnography, this article explores strategies used by immigrant and pro-immigrant associations to counter hate speech. The rise of this hate speech, disseminated mainly by far-right parties, has occurred at a time when many immigrant associations have little or no access to social media platforms. However, members of all these associations (immigrant and pro-immigrant) are aware of the perverse effects of these discourses, as they have either received them on their personal social media platforms or experienced abhorrent hate-speech attacks against their members and/or users. Despite their difficulties in navigating the “glocaline political arena”, they have participated in a number of projects and developed tools that allow them to generate a counter-discourse. We identify and explore the richness and diversity of these online campaigns and activities, highlighting the difficulties that immigrant associations—compared to pro-immigrant ones—face in navigating the glocaline political arena.
