Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine aggressive behaviors among Romanian high school students between 15 and 16 years old, to compare data in two national representative samples and to identify factors associated with physical fighting. This study investigates the association of selected factors (social, school performance and substance use) with physical fighting. A total of 2289 Romanian students were included in the 2007 database and 2770 in the 2011 database. This study revealed that 35.87% of the teenagers have taken part in a physical fight during the previous 12 months, as compared with the European average of 31.5%. Romania has the highest prevalence of violent behavior by participating in a group bruising of an individual in both surveys, 2007 and 2011. A logistic regression analysis performed for the 2011 study revealed the following factors associated with physical fighting: binge drinking during the previous 30 days, male gender, serious problems with friends, parent(s) who do not know where and with whom the adolescents spend their evenings, poor parental caring, low school grades, and high truancy. A decrease in almost all aggressive behaviors was noticed in 2011, compared to 2007. These findings may be useful to support and guide policy makers regarding improvement and implementation of strategies to further prevent aggressive behaviors in teenagers.
Highlights
Aggression in high school students is a problem in many countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] and adolescents are especially vulnerable to its consequences [9]
The present study has demonstrated that the combination of male gender, binge drinking during the previous 30 days, having serious problems with friends, parent(s) who do not know where and with whom the adolescents spend their evenings, poor parental caring, low school grades, and high truancy were predictive of physical fighting in this adolescent population
We found that the adolescents who are more likely to experience physical fights (OR = 2.22, 95%confidence interval (CI): 1.47–3.36, p < 0.001) usually have parents who rarely know with whom their children spend their evenings
Summary
Aggression in high school students is a problem in many countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] and adolescents are especially vulnerable to its consequences [9]. Victimization and fighting illustrate different types of involvement in violence during adolescence. Victimization by bullying occurs when a person is made the recipient of aggressive behavior [10]. It is someone less powerful than the perpetrator. Fighting is an aggressive behavior and, in most cases, the people involved are of a similar age and equal strength
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