School bullying and some associated factors among students aged 13-17 in Nghean province in 2017

Our study described the prevalence of being bullied among students aged 13-17 and associated factors in this group in two districts in Nghe An Province in Vietnam in 2017. A cross-sectional study was performed with 1074 students. The study ananlyzed data from a survey about health risk behaviors and associated factors among school students. Its questionnaire was based on GSHS survey and Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale. Students aged 13-17 in two schools, in urban and rural districts in Nghe An province, were selected for the research. There were two schools in Vinh city and two in Do Luong district. This study has identified that 16% of students reported that they were bullied during the last month. The majority of victims were bullied on 1 to 5 days over 30 days. Among bullied students, verbal bullying behaviors were more prevalent than physical behaviors (38% compared 9%). Being bullied was significant more prevalent among younger students and independent form gender. Students who reported ever having health risk behaviors including tobacco and alcohol consumption; and mental health problems were significant more likely to be bullied than those who never reported such problems. In conclusion, violence in school is becoming a persistent issue not only in Vietnam but also all over the world. Findings support that the development of prevention strategies for victims is crucial to reducing the effect of school bullying on children’s future.

SCHOOL BULLYING AND SOME ASSOCIATED FACTORS

AMONG STUDENTS AGED 13-17

IN NGHEAN PROVINCE IN 2017 Quynh Anh Tran 1 , Huong Le Vu Thuy 1 , Trang Pham Thi Thu 1 , Bac Truong Dinh 2 ,

Diem Nguyen Thi Hong 2

1 Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Hanoi Medical University

2 Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health

Our study described the prevalence of being bullied among students aged 13-17 and associated factors

in this group in two districts in Nghe An Province in Vietnam in 2017 A cross-sectional study was performed with 1074 students The study ananlyzed data from a survey about health risk behaviors and associated factors among school students Its questionnaire was based on GSHS survey and Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale Students aged 13-17 in two schools, in urban and rural districts in Nghe An province, were selected for the research There were two schools in Vinh city and two in Do Luong district This study has identified that 16% of students reported that they were bullied during the last month The majority of victims were bullied on 1 to 5 days over 30 days Among bullied students, verbal bullying behaviors were more prevalent than physical behaviors (38% compared 9%) Being bullied was significant more prevalent among younger students and independent form gender Students who reported ever having health risk behaviors including tobacco and alcohol consumption; and mental health problems were significant more likely to be bullied than those who never reported such problems In conclusion, violence in school is becoming a persistent issue not only in Vietnam but also all over the world Findings support that the development of prevention strategies for victims is crucial to reducing the effect of school bullying on children’s future.

Key words: School bullying, school-aged students, students, violence, cyber bullying

I INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the number of children

experiencing violence in school setting is

increasing all over the world Accroding to

WHO, it is estimated from children’s world

data that over half of children on average

report bullying

Bullying is intentional and repeated aggression from which children lack the ability to protect themselves [1] Bullying

at school has been associated with poor academic performance, and mental health problems including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thought [2 - 5]

There have been number of studies on school bullying worldwide Per one review

of low and middle –income countries, the prevalence of bullying within individual countries ranges from 20 to 61% in 18

Corresponding author: Huong Le Vu Thuy, Institute for

Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Hanoi Medical

University

Email: lethuyhuong@hmu.edu.vn

Received: 06 June 2017

Accepted: 16 November 2017

countries, and Tajikistan was the country

only with a prevalence of bullying of less

than 20% [6] In the United State, data from

a recent Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance

showed that more than one- fifth of students

are bullied on school property during 12

months [7] The Global School-based

Student Health Survey (GHSH) in China

found that around 32% of students were

bullied over the past 30 days In South East

Asia, the figures in Singapore revealed

that about a quarter of secondary school

students and one- fifth of primary school

students were victims of bullying [8]

Another study in Turkey showed that 22%

were victims, 9.4% were bully/victims and

9.2% were bullies [9] In German, Richter

showed that 17% of boys and 10% of girls

from 11 to 15 years old were classified as

repeated bullying perpetrators [10]

Although studies on school bullying have

been conducted in several sites in Vietnam,

there is a lack of data on school students

who are bullied in Nghe An province

The aims of this study are to describe the

prevalence of being bullied among students

aged 13 - 17 and associated factors in two

districts in Nghe An Province in Vietnam in

2017

II SUBJECTS AND METHODS

1 Subjects and recruitment

This study used a cross-sectional

study design By using a formula, the

minimum sample size was estimated to

be 412 students To be more precise,

once multiplied with design effect and a

sample size of at least 824 students was

determined necessary In fact, a total of

1074 participants involved The following formula was used to estimate the sample size for a proportion of the population

p= 0.22 (Le Thi Hai Ha 's study) [9];

= 1.96 (95%CI) and d = 0.04

In Nghe An Province, located in the centre

of Vietnam, some cases of school bullying were reported among students in grade 6

to 12 via the internet Therefore,Vinh city, in

a rural district, and Do Luong district, in a urban one, were selected In each location,

a secondary school and high school were chosen, namely Hong Son secondary school (282 participants) and Le Viet Thuan high school (274 participants), located in Vinh city, and Nguyen Thai Nhu secondary school (270 participants) and Do Luong III high school (248 participants) in Do Luong district

In secondary schools, students from grades 7, 8 and 9 were collected In high schools students form grades, that is 10 and 11 were collected Eventually, in each grade, three or four classes were randomly selected based on the sizes of classes and all students in chosen classes were eligible

to participate Data was collected in the class setting First, researchers explained

to students the aim of the survey and how to complete the questionnaire The researchers also expressed that participation was voluntary After that, it took 15 to 30 minutes for students to fill out questionnaire, which researchers collected directly There were around 20 to 40 students in a class

n = Z1-α/2 2 x p(1- p)d2

2 Methods

Instrument and data collection

We had applied GSHS questionnaire

that was made by WHO to help countries

measure the behavioural risk factors and

protective factors among young people

aged 13 to 17 years It focused bullying and

determined current both bullying prevalence

(during past 30 days) and types of bullying

behaviors Mental health problems (feelings

of loneliness, being worried, hard focus,

and suicide attempt) and health risk

behaviors (alcohol consumption, drug use,

and tobacco use) were also collected

Data analysis

The data was entered into EPI and

analyzed using STATA 12.0 Descriptive

statistics, odds ratios with 95% CI

(Confidence Interval), and Pearson Chi -

square tests were used to describe all the

variables All missing or illogical data were

excluded from the analysis

3 Ethics

In the study, all students were given the

choice to participate and were assured that

their answers would remain anonymously

All personal identities of the respondents

were protected The survey was performed

with agreement of school leaders and the

Nghe An Department of Education and

Training

III RESULTS

1 General description of the

participants

The proportion of boys was lower than

that of girls: 45.8% versus 54.2% In term

of a total of 1074 participants (with the

respondent rate is 100%), the percentage

of respondents aged from 13 to 15 years old was 49.8% compared to 50.2% of those aged 16 and 17 years old The percentages

of urban and rural areas were 51.8 and 48.2 respectively There were about 14.1%

of total students who reported that they do not have any close friends to confide in Regarding BMI, the proportions of normal and underweight students were at with 46.4% and 49.6% respectively, while 4%

of students were classified as overweight/ obese

The proportion of alcohol consumption was the highest (one of three) health risk behaviors with about 20.5% of total students reporting alcohol use, followed by 8% of participants reporting tobacco use Approximately 80% of total respondents reported that they had diffculty concentrating during the last 12 months; followed by 70% of students reporting they felt lonely during the past 12 months In addition, more than half of students reported being worried during that period Finally, the rate

of participants who had attempt suicide was around 10%

2 Prevalence of being bullied among students aged 13-17 in Nghe An province in Vietnam

The overall past 30 days prevalence

of school bullying was 16% The majority

of students were bullied on 1 to 2 days, constituting for 9.8%, followed by 2.7%

of participants who suffered from school bullying on 3 to 5 days 1% of students reported bullying for at least 6 days, and 1.4% of respondents reported being bullied all 30 days

Table 1 Types of bullying behavior by personal characteristics of bullied students Characteristics

Physical bullying (%)

Verbal bullying (%)

Others (%)

Total

BMI

18.5 to 24.99 10 (12.8) 32 (41.0) 36 (46.2) 78

3 Associated factors to being bullied among school students

Table 2 Association between personal characteristics and being bullied among

school students Characteristics

Bullied students OR (95%CI) p - value

1.3 (0.9 - 1.8) > 0.05

1.0 0.017 < 0.05

1.3 (1 - 1.8) > 0.05

Friendship Have close friends 144 15.8 1.0

1.2 (0.7-1.8) > 0.05 Have no close

BMI

> 0.05 Under 18.5 89 16.7 1.1 (0.8-1.5)

Table 2 presents, according to age group, the propotion among 13-15 year-old students roughtly one in five, whist it was 13,4% among those of 16-17

Table 3 Association between mental health problem and being bullied

among school students Mental health

0.001 < 0.05

< 0.05

0.001 < 0.05

< 0.05

Table 3 indicates that mental health problems were associated with being victim of perpetration among school students There is also evidence that students with mental health problems were significant likely to be perpetrated than those who had no any psychiatric problems

29.1% of respondents who had ever smoked reported that they were bullied during the past 30 days In participants using alcohol at least one drink during their lives, 25.5% of them reported being bullied Statistically, students who had ever used tobacco and alcohol were associated with being bullied The prevalence of being bullied among students who had ever consumed drug in their lifetime was nearly 30% Although the odd ratio was reasonably high, there was no significant association between drug use and being a victim

IV DISCUSSION

Findings of current study indicated that nearly 16% of total students reported being bullied over the past 30 days This prevalence was lower than figures reported in previous studies conducted in Vietnam and other countries, which reported a range from 20-50% bullying victims among school students [7, 8]

These distinctions can be explained by the discrepancies between sample sizes, instruments used or the time period when studies were carried out or even geographic features

This current research investigated the percentages of each type of bullying behaviors

and differences in bullying among gender,

age, region, friendship, and BMI With

regard to age, the percentage of both age

groups suffering from physical behaviors

were almost equal at around 9%, while the

proportion of younger students who reported

verbal behaviors were both around 40%,

much higher than the percentage amongst

older students This was in accordance

with previous findings [6,11] As for distinct

geographies, the percentages of urban

students who reported physical and verbal

bullying behaviors were 8.8% and 45.6%,

higher than percentage of students rural

(8.6% and 31.2% respectively) A recent

study on cyber bullying among high school

students in three provinces of Vietnam also

reported a higher figure in urban areas [12]

As for age, in accordance with findings

from previous studies, literature shows

higher prevalence of bullying among

younger students For instance, Indonesia

GSHS data suggests higher prevalence of

victimization in 13 - 15 year-old students

than in 16 -17 year-old students This

current study also indicated that being

bullied was more prevalent among

younger participants (p < 0.05) Our study

investigated health risk behaviors including

tobacco and alcohol consumption These

results are in accord with recent studies all

over the world indicating the association

between being bullied and engaging in

certain health behaviors [11] In Vietnam,

there were the similar results in GSHS 2013

(2014) Although the OR was reasonably

high, there was no significant association

between drug use and being a victim This

could be due to sampling sizes In future

studies we should increase the size of out sample

This current study detects a strong association between being bullied and suffering from certain psychiatric problems among students Respondents who reported having one in four mental disorders including loneliness, being worried, hard focus, and suicide attempt were significant more likely

to report being bullied than students who did not possess any mental health problems (p

< 0.05) These results seem to be consistent with previous research in both Vietnam and other countries [14,15]

V CONCLUSION

The majority of victims were bullied on

1 to 5 days in all 30 days and totalled 16%

of students Among bullied students, verbal bullying behaviors were more prevalent than physical behaviors Students who were bullied were significantly more prevalent among younger students but were and independent of gender Students who had health risk behaviors including tobacco, alcohol consumption, loneliness, being worried, difficulty focusing, depression and suicide attempts were significant more likely to being bullied than those who never reported mental health problems (p < 0.05) Additionally, the prevalence of being bullied among students who had ever reported one

or two health risk behaviors was significant higher than that for those who had not

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Department of Preventive Medicine - Ministry of Health for funding for this study

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