Citation

Isolan L, Salum GA, Osowski AT, Zottis GH, Manfro GG. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2013; 22(10): 641-648.

Affiliation

Anxiety Disorders Program for Children and Adolescents, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Ramiro Barcelos, 2350, Room: 2202, Porto Alegre, CEP 90035-003, Brazil, isolan@cpovo.net.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00787-013-0412-z

PMID

23553573

Abstract

School bullying is frequent and is associated with a broad spectrum of psychiatric problems. The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of bullying behaviors in a large sample of Brazilian children and adolescents and to investigate the association between bullying behaviors and DSM-IV anxiety symptomatology. This cross-sectional study involved completion of a questionnaire about bullying behaviors and their frequency and the Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) that is a self-report screening tool for childhood anxiety disorders by 2,355 students. A total of 22.9 % of the sample reported frequent involvement in bullying, as a bully (7.6 %), as a victim (5.7 %), or as a bully-victim (9.6 %). In general, our findings showed that students involved in bullying behaviors, as victims or bully-victims, were more likely to have higher scores in SCARED total and its subscales than bullies and than uninvolved students. The prevalence of bullying behaviors among Brazilian youth is about average when compared with previous samples described in the literature. Victims and bully-victims, but no bullies, are groups associated with higher anxiety symptomatology.

Language: en