title: [Violence and injuries among school children in the Republic of Serbia].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are only a limited number of researches on the frequency, extent, causality and the location of injuries among young people. It is difficult to say to which extent the risky behavior in youth is really spread, because there are no routine data on this issue. In the Republic of Srpska, the first nationwide survey on health behavior of school aged children was conducted, comprising a very important area of health behavior related to injuries, violence and harassment. The aim of this paper was to investigate the risky behavior of school children in the Republic of Srpska in relation to injuries, violence and harassment.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted throughout the entire territory of the Republic of Srpska during 2002, on a selected sample of schools and covered a total of 1783 pupils, 15 years of age. The survey instrument was the international standard questionnaire, modified for the Republic of Srpska region.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Almost a quarter of all polled school children of both sexes have participated in fights. More than 10% of boys carry weapons. Injuries have mostly occurred during sports activities, on sports grounds (35.8%), at home (26.9%), in the school yard (14.5%), in the street or parking lots (11.4%) and in the countryside (5.6%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The existing violence and injuries among school children indicate a clear need for improvement of mutual communication and tolerance among pupils and involvement of all relevant community members: parents, teachers, health workers and the entire society in health education of school children.
authors.affiliation: Zavod za zastitu zdravlja Republike Srpske, Banja Luka.
authors.forename: Janja
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bojanić
authors.forename: Sanja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matović-Miljanović
authors.forename: Slavenka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Janković
authors.forename: Ljubica
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jandrić
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raznatović-Durović
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015022:Yugoslavia / Q000453:epidemiology