Bullying entre estudantes da rede municipal de ensino de Pelotas, RS: prevalência e fatores associados.

Abstract

Bullying is the term used to characterize provocations and aggression among peers, and these actions can result in psychological, social, and eating disorders, becoming a public health problem. Increasingly present among the teenage public, it is in the school environment that most victims suffer from the various forms that this violence takes, which can be psychological, physical, verbal, or virtual - cyberbullying. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of bullying and its associated factors among adolescents from the municipal school network in the urban area of Pelotas, RS. This is a cross-sectional, school-based study, carried out with all students enrolled in the 9th grade of elementary school in 25 municipal schools in the urban area of Pelotas, linked to the Health at School Program. For the bullying assessment, the question "Do you think you have ever been bullied?", present in a questionnaire self-completed by the student in class, was used. Bullying was tested for association with the variables sex, age, color/race, maternal education, living with mother and/or father, smoking and alcohol use, nutritional status, and body image. It was found that approximately 71% of the students reported having suffered bullying once in their lives, with school being the place of greatest occurrence of the events (86.7%). After the adjusted analysis bullying was associated in females, among students with yellow, indigenous, brown, or black skin/race, in those who reported ever having tried tobacco, who felt dissatisfied or indifferent about their bodies, and who were overweight. The results point to the need for actions based on educational policies and practices aimed at reducing and preventing this type of violence, especially in the school environment.