title: Abuse among school going adolescents in three major cities of Pakistan: is it associated with school performances and mood disorders?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the proportion of various types of abuses and their association with school performances and psychological stress among adolescents from three major cities of Pakistan.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cross-sectional school survey was conducted from March to September 2009, comprising adolescent students at six schools in Karachi, Lahore and Quetta. Data was collected using a self-administered and pre-tested questionnaire by trained medical students. SPSS 16 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 414 subjects in the study, there were 223 (54%) boys and 191 (46%) girls with an overall mean age of 14.36 ± 1.08 years. In all, 140 (33.7%) participants were physically abused and 236 (57%) participants were verbally abused in the preceding 12 months. Besides, 245 (59.2%) were involved in physical fight and 195 (47.1%) had suffered injury during the preceding year. There were 171 (41.4%) subjects having suffered bullying during the same period. Verbal abuse (p = 0.05), physical fight (p = 0.05) and bullying (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with poor school performances among adolescents. Physical abuse (p = 0.05), verbal abuse (p = 0.003), injury (p = 0.02) and bullying (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with psychological stress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Various types of abuse were quite prevalent in adolescents that were significantly associated with poor school performance and poor mental health.
authors.forename: Saleem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khawaja
authors.forename: Adeel Akbar
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Khoja
authors.forename: Komal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Motwani
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D058445:Bullying; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*