title: Prevalence of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  School bullying is a global problem involving a high proportion of students worldwide. However, its prevalence and types in secondary schools in Port Harcourt is not yet known.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to determine the prevalence and types of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1160 students from six secondary schools in Port Harcourt comprised the sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional school-based study conducted in Port Harcourt in March 2014. Two mixed schools, two all-boys schools, and two all-girls schools were selected using purposive sampling technique. Stratified random sampling technique, by class strata (senior secondary 1, 2 and 3) was used to select 1160 students from the six schools. A 22-item self-administered questionnaire adapted from a previous study was modified and used in this study. The questions covered the prevalence, type of bullying, and socio-demographic data. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Incorporated, Chicago, IL, USA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 82.2% reported being victims of bullying, whereas 64.9% reported being bullies. About 9.7% and 11.8% were neither bullies nor bullied, respectively. Bullying was significantly higher in the all-boys (90.8%) and all-girls (82.9%) schools than in the mixed schools (73.5%), p=0.000. More males were victims (53.4%) and bullies (53.3%) but more females (55.4%) were bully-victims. The most common (57.5%) type of bullying was physical bullying.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rate of bullying was found to be very high in secondary schools in Port Harcourt.
authors.forename: Balafama Abinye
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Alex-Hart
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Okagua
authors.forename: Peace Ibo
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Opara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D058445:Bullying / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult