Esther Calvete

Dr. Calvete is a senior lecturer of Psychology at the Department of Personality, Psychological Assessment, and Treatment of the University of Deusto. She coordinates the Deusto Stress Research, a research unit focused on vulnerability to stress and various psychological problems that can arise when individuals are facing adversity, such as depression, violence and eating disorders. Several of her studies are focused on children and adolescents with the aim of identifying the developmental mechanisms involved in these psychological problems. Her team was awarded the maximum accreditation for excellence in research by the Basque Government in 2010 and has won many grants in competitive calls. She is also the director of the Deusto International Research School, a center created to promote excellence in training new researchers.

Many adolescents are victims of assaults by peers, partners and/or adults. As a result of these attacks, victims may develop mental health problems such as depression and social anxiety. Recently, traditional forms of violence were added to those based on new technologies, which have specific characteristics. In this symposium various forms of victimization in adolescence will be addressed, associations between victimization and execution of violence and its impact on mental health. Specifically, the first oral communication analyzes changes in cyberbullying behaviors among adolescents and young people from Cantabria over time. The second study evaluates adolescent dating aggression over four years, which shows predictive patterns between victimization and perpetration. The third oral communication focuses on online grooming or sexual persuasion and harassment of minors through the Internet, which is an emerging problem that has been little studied to date, despite its serious consequences. The latest work explores mental health consequences of victimization, focusing on the role of school bullying and cyberbullying in the features and severity of Social Anxiety Disorder.