Bullying victimization and associated factors among schoolchildren in a city in the south of Brazil

Abstract

The objective was to assess the prevalence of bullying victimization and associated factors among adolescents in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted with 795 ninth grade students from 25 urban municipal schools linked to the School Health Program. Bullying was assessed using questions that addressed the occurrence, frequency, location, type of violence suffered and how much it bothers the victims. Gross and adjusted analyses were performed by Poisson regression. Approximately 71% of the students reported having suffered bullying, and school was the location of greatest occurrence (86.7%). Among the types of aggression suffered, "nicknames" was the most recurrent complaint (88.4%), followed by exclusion or isolation (26.6%). Victimization was more frequent among girls (PR 1.13; 95%CI 1.02-1.27), students with non-white skin color/race (PR 1.16; 95%CI 1.05-1.29), who have already tried tobacco (PR 1.14; 95%CI 1.03-1.27), dissatisfied (PR 1.42; 95%CI 1.27-1.58) or indifferent (PR 1.21; 95%CI 1.02-1.43) about their bodies, and who were overweight (PR 1.15; 95%CI 1.04-1.27). The results show that bullying is a frequent practice in the school environment, pointing to the need for educational practices aimed at reducing and preventing this type of violence.