Violence, bullying and repercussions on health are the themes of a pioneer study coordinated by Prof. Maria Fernanda T. Peres, of the Preventive Medicine Department of FMUSP, with the goal of estimating the prevalence of victimization and the perpetration of bullying and other violence and its associated factors. It is the São Paulo Project for the Social Development of Children and Adolescents (SP-PROSO), a name derived from the Z-PROSO and M-PROSO, developed in the cities of Zurich, in Switzerland, and Montevideo, in Uruguay, respectively.
The drawing of the SP-PROSO was thought to allow comparisons with the results of the researches from other cities, which haven’t been done in Brazil for studies around this theme. “It’s the first time a project in Brazil, with a large and representative sample of adolescents, explores a series of factors which are well known in international literature and recognized as important for the understanding of the mechanisms associated to violence”, states Prof. Maria Fernanda.
The field sampling, finished in 2017, comprehended a data of 2700 adolescents from the 9th grade to High School made in 119 public and private schools from the city of São Paulo. The same instruments applied in the cities of Zurich and Montevideo, were utilized in this work. The results, detailed in the project’s website, will be submitted to several scientific publications, such as Social Science & Medicine, the Journal of Adolescent Health and the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, among others.
The perception of teenagers on parenting practices and stiles, their participation in groups of juvenile offenders, habits of leisure or involvement in transgressing activities, besides psychosocial elements such as the ability of self-control, violent or non-violent strategies of conflict resolution, moral neutralization, values and norms related to the use of violence and acceptance of violence against women – are some of the risk factors investigated.
The study reveals the total of adolescents involved in bullying, be it by suffering of practicing it, add up to 33,6%. Most of them were victims of bullying (28,7%) and 16,3% were perpetrators. The prevalence of victimization by bullying was about 30,7% among girls and 26,7% among boys.
The types of bullying which victimize the most are the practices of making fun, laughter or offenses (17,5%), followed by acts involving hidden, taken or broken objects (11,5%), ostracism or exclusion (9,7%), sexual harassment (6%) and beating, biting, hair pulling (3,7%).
“Those are the factors subject to intervention. I believe the great potential of the study is to explore, in the Brazilian context, questions relating to other places and to be able to propose similar models of intervention, saved the local and cultural differences, of course”, she affirms.
Curiously, the victimization by bullying doesn’t have meaningful differences, if considering the social markers of race/color, since 28,8% of white and 28,6% of non-white were involved in bullying, either receiving or practicing it, which demands more investigation, according to the researcher. “It’s possible a difference in victimization associated to race/color shows up if we consider the racial composition within schools, which hasn’t been done yet”, according to the professor.
However, there is a warning sign of bullying and victimization directed towards homosexuals (42,1% against 27,7% of non-homosexuals), deficient people (39,7% against 25,4% of people without deficiencies) and obese (31,5% against 28,1% of non-obese). The obesity variable has more importance in the victimization and bullying among girls (32,3%), comparing to boys (21%).
The involvement in violence, be it perpetrating it or being the victim of it, has shown a prevalence of 35,4% in the researched universe. The most part was that of violence (22,8%) and 19,4% were perpetrators. The prevalence of victimization by violence was about 22% among girls and 23,5% among boys. On the other hand, the perpetration of it was found in 22,9% of boys and 14,9% of girls.
The types of violence practiced were physical violence (12,7%), gun possession (7,8%), theft with violence (1,7%) and sexual violence (1,1%). Among the victims, the main struggles were theft with violence (15,3%), physical violence without firearm possession (7,6%), physical violence with firearm possession (5,5%) and sexual violence (1,7%).
The fact girls, homosexuals and disabled people are the main victims of bullying warns about issues linked to tolerance, culture, social values and the respect to diversity, the professor states. “This discussion is crucial in a moment where opposite trends appear to the discussion of these values in school spaces. It is necessary to talk and discuss”, says the professor.
For professor Maria Fernanda, the quality of relations between parents and their children is an important factor associated with bullying and violence. Some indicators, such as the monitoring of the children’s free time, the involvement of parents and their children, the use of violent disciplinary practices and also frequent conflict between the parents constitute in risk factors, already recognized in international literature.
It’s important, however, to consider the analyzes of these factors, the contextual aspects related to the support given by the parents, mothers and caretakers, in the form of public politics. “Our results have shown the positive parenting practices and styles (monitoring and involvement) are associated with the lesser prevalence of involvement with violence and bullying situations, while negative practices and styles (conflicts and violent discipline) are associated with greater prevalence of involvement with these same situations.
Adolescents’ social habits, such as nighttime leisure activities and the characteristics of friend groups, can be either risk or protective factors for violent behavior. For example, among teenagers who participate in groups of friends of transgressors, 37,9% were victims of violence, against 23% of those who don’t participate in these groups. Among the adolescents with a high frequency of nighttime leisure 32,8% were victims of bullying, against 27,3% of those with a low frequency of nighttime leisure.
Financed by the British Academy/Newton Foundation and the Research Support Foundation of the State of São Paulo (FAPESP), the project initiated in 2016, when Prof. Maria Fernanda was a Visiting Fellow on Violence Research Center, Institute of Criminology, of the Cambridge University, in Great Britain.
