Prevalence and factors associated with bullying victimization among Brazilian students, 2019

Abstract

The objective was to analyze the prevalence, reasons, and factors associated with experiencing bullying among Brazilian students aged 13 to 17 years. This is a cross-sectional and analytical study using data from the 2019 National School Health Survey. The outcome assessed was self-reported experience of bullying. Prevalence estimates were calculated along with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI), and crude and adjusted prevalence ratios were determined to investigate associations between the outcome and covariates. Bivariate analysis was followed by multivariate analysis using Poisson regression. Among the 125,123 participants, 23.1% (95% CI: 22.6-23.7) reported having experienced bullying. The main reasons were body appearance (16.7%; 95% CI: 15.9-17.4) and facial appearance (11.4%; 95% CI: 10.9-12.2), while 61.7% (95% CI: 60.7-62.7) did not identify a specific reason. In the final model, positive associations with the outcome were found for feeling lonely, feeling sad, believing that life is not worth living, having no friends, experiencing family violence, skipping classes, and tobacco use. In conclusion, one in four students reported experiencing bullying, with unidentified reasons being the most frequent, followed by body and facial appearance. Bullying was associated with individual and contextual determinants.