The influence of family and peer violence in the practice of bullying among school adolescents

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of bullies and identify factors related to bullying among high school students in Recife. This is an analytical cross-sectional epidemiological study, composed of a probabilistic sample by clusters of 1,402 students aged 15 to 19 years old, enrolled in the second year of high school in both public and private schools in Recife. In this work the bullying will be approached according to the Bioecological Theory of Human Development of Bronfenbrenner. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire about bullying and associated factors. Data analysis was conducted by the Pearson chi-square test with statistical significance of 0.05 and 95% Confidence Interval. To analyze associations, a multilevel modeling was employed and STATA version 12.0 software was used. The results showed a prevalence of 21.26% of bullying aggressors and the factors associated with the practice of bullying were violence suffered at school, violence between peers, as well as violence practiced by the mother and siblings. Hence, the results indicate that the violence suffered in the family and school context can have repercussions on the practice of bullying among adolescents.