Profiles of Political Cyberactivism among University Students in Chile: Repertoires and Patterns of Digital Participation

Political cyberactivism has broadened the repertoires of youth participation, but its internal configuration among university students in Latin America remains poorly described empirically. This study characterizes profiles of political cyberactivism among students at Chilean state universities and analyzes how these profiles relate to dimensions of socio-digital inequality, educational trajectories, and willingness to act offline. A cross-sectional survey was carried out to 905 students from seven state universities. Political cyberactivism was measured using a nine-item subscale of online political activism, organized into three theoretical dimensions: institutional participation (relationship with formal actors and channels), non-institutional or activist participation (denunciation, protest, and engagement), and communitarian participation (collective coordination, volunteering, and mutual support). A confirmatory factor analysis supported this three-factor structure. Based on the scores in these dimensions, a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was estimated, evaluating models of two to eight classes using BIC, CAIC, and entropy, then the profiles were described using sociodemographic variables (sex, geographic macro-region, area of ​​study, socioeconomic level), digital access markers (primary connection device), and predisposition to offline political action. The four-profile solution presented the best balance between statistical fit and substantive interpretability. The first profile corresponds to network-bound cyberactivism: sustained online political participation, but with low in-person engagement. The second profile reflects integrated cyberactivism: high simultaneous engagement in institutional, activist, and communitarian dimensions, along with a greater predisposition to act offline. The third profile expresses selective cyberactivism: an emphasis on digital denunciation and confrontation, supported by advanced digital skills, but with less institutional and communitarian engagement. The fourth profile shows low digital political engagement in all measured dimensions. The profiles differ by gender, field of study, macro-region, and type of device, indicating that student political cyberactivism is heterogeneous and stratified, rather than homogeneous, and that digital competence alone does not guarantee sustained political mobilization.