Bullying, violence, and risk behavior in South African school students.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
To examine the prevalence of bullying behavior in adolescents from Cape Town and Durban, South Africa, and the association of these behaviors with levels of violence and risk behavior.

METHOD:
Five thousand and seventy-four adolescent schoolchildren in grade 8 (mean age 14.2 years) and grade 11 (mean age 17.4 years) at 72 Government schools in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa completed self-report questionnaires on participation in bullying, violent, anti-social and risk behaviors.

RESULTS:
Over a third (36.3%) of students were involved in bullying behavior, 8.2% as bullies, 19.3% as victims and 8.7% as bully-victims (those that are both bullied and bully others). Male students were most at risk of both perpetration and victimization, with younger boys more vulnerable to victimization. Violent and anti-social behaviors were increased in bullies, victims and bully-victims compared to controls not involved in any bullying behavior (p<.01 in all cases). Risk taking behavior was elevated for bullies and bully-victims, but for victims was largely comparable to controls. Victims were less likely to smoke than controls (odds ratio .83, p<.05). Bully-victims showed largely comparable violent, anti-social and risk taking behavior profiles to bullies. Bully-victims showed comparable suicidal ideation and smoking profiles to victims.

CONCLUSIONS:
Results were in keeping with Western findings. Involvement in bullying is a common problem for young South Africans. Bullying behavior can act as an indicator of violent, anti-social and risk-taking behaviors.

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Author information

Author/s: Liang, Holan (H); Flisher, Alan J (AJ); Lombard, Carl J (CJ);

Affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, PO Box 085, Institute of Psychiatry, DeCrespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Child abuse & neglect (Child Abuse Negl), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 31 (issue 2) : pp 161-71

Dates: Created 2007/03/12; Completed 2007/05/29;

PMID: 17313977, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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