engleski

Bullying among school children in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina : cross-sectional study

To compare the prevalence and characteritics of bullying between two towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Stolac, which was exposed to firearm conflict during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Posušje, which was outside the active combat zone. In this cross-sectional study we included 484 primary school pupils attending 4th-8th grade elementary school ; 217 (44.8%) of them from Stolac and 267 (55.2%) from Posušje. Thge pupils were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire on the experience of bullying. Every sixth pupil (16.4%) experienced at least one form of bullying almost every day, while 34 (7.0%) constantly bullyied other children. Sixth-eighth graders were more often bullies than 4th-5th graders (P=0.044). Girls were most often victims of bullying, while boys were prevalent bullies (P=0.036). The expected difference in violence between the two towns was not observed, except for older pupils in Posušje, who were more violent than their peers in Stolac (P=0.044). Among the analyzed variables of sex, age, town, and school achievement, only the male gender was a significant predictor of bullying (P=0.010), increasing the relative risk 3.005 times. Bullying among primary school pupils did not differ between areas that did/did not experience war activities. Our results could be useful in the introduction of specific preventive measures against bullying in postwar situations.

ullying; primary school pupils

nije evidentirano