Bullying victimization among 13 to 15-year-old school children: results from two comparative studies in 66 countries and regions.
OBJECTIVE
to examine the prevalence of bullying victimization in 66 countries and territories from five continents based on data from two large international surveys: the 2001/2 Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey (HBSC) and the Global School-based Students Health Survey (GSHS). The surveys provide nationally representative, cross-sectional information on 13-15-year-old school children (N = 218,104).


METHODS
Bullying victimization, once or more within the past 2 months (HBSC)/30 days (GSHS).


RESULTS
On average, 32.1% of the children were bullied at school at least once within the past 2 months in countries involved in the HBSC study and 37.4% of children were bullied at least one day within the past 30 days in countries involved in the GSHS study. In both surveys, a large variation in prevalence was found across countries. The lowest prevalence in the GSHS survey was observed in Tajikistan (7.1% for both boys and girls) and among HBSC countries in Sweden (16.0% for boys and 14.6% for girls) and the Czech Republic (17.1% for boys and 14.2% for girls). The highest prevalence for boys in the GSHS survey was found in Zimbabwe (Bulawayo) (70.2%) and for girls in Zambia (67.1%). In the HBSC survey, Lithuania had the highest prevalence of bullying victimization (62.7% for boys and 64.4% for girls).


CONCLUSIONS
Victimization to bullying violates the fundamental rights of children; our study suggests that although many countries signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, many have to work harder to fulfill the goals of the Convention.
Due
Pernille
P
National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. pdu@niph.dk
Holstein
Bjørn Evald
BE
Soc
Mag Scient
MS
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000374:Aggression; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014944:World Health Organization