Verbal abuse, gender and well-being at school.
The purpose was to assess the prevalence of students' experience of verbal abuse and its effects on school satisfaction and well-being from a gender perspective. Attention was paid to age differences.


METHODS
The study population consisted of all students in grades 6 and 8 in a Swedish city. A total of 1,006 students, ages 12-15, completed a self-administered questionnaire (response rate 84 percent).


RESULTS
Boys reported experiencing insults and threats to a greater extent, whereas girls more frequently experienced sexualized name-calling, specifically "whore". Both genders reported boys as perpetrators of verbal abuse most often. Further, girls generally reported lower levels of school satisfaction and well-being, while verbal abuse had a negative effect on the well-being of both genders.


CONCLUSIONS
Verbal abuse between students is a predominantly masculine practice, more pronounced among older students. It impacts negatively on the school satisfaction and well-being of both girls and boys and does not have to be frequent, repeated, or combined with other kinds of harassment to have this effect.
Eliasson
Miriam A
MA
Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Social Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden. miriam.eliasson@ali.se
Laflamme
Lucie
L
Isaksson
Kerstin
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000378:Agonistic Behavior; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D017406:Sexual Harassment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012919:Social Behavior; D012933:Social Identification; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population; D014705:Verbal Behavior