Prevalence and risk factors of violence among elementary school children in Cairo.
Author: Ez Elarab HS, Sabbour SM, Gadallah MA, Asaad TA.
Source:
The Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association, 82(1-2), 127-146.
School violence is a growing problem that has received widespread attention.
Violent behavior for elementary school children is primarily expressed as
physical or verbal aggression. Various factors contribute to violent and
aggression by children at homes, schools or individual risk factors. The aim of
the present study is to measure the prevalence of violence, risk factors, and
different forms among elementary school children, to identify consequence of
violent exposure and children with abnormal behavior score. A cross-sectional
study was done enrolling a total of 500 elementary students from two mixed
schools (private and public) 250 from each in North Cairo Educational Zone. Data
collected from students, parents and teachers were: violence behavior, home and
family atmosphere, peer relation, exposure to violence at school; being
victimized, witness, or initiator, and other risk factors. Standardized
questionnaires were used as Achenback Child Behavior checklist, parent and
teacher forms of Strength and Difficulty questionnaires (SDQ), and developmental
history of child. Monthly grades of students, IQ assessment, physical examination
of students were recorded. RESULTS: Prevalence of different forms of violence was
higher in public school than private; physical violence 76%, 62% respectively.
All forms of violence were higher among boys. Living with a single parent (OR =
2.3), absence of an attachment figure (OR = 13.6), instrumental delivery or
cesarean section (OR = 1.9), corporal punishment (OR = 3), violent video games
preference (OR = 2.5), exposure to verbal aggression (OR = 3), relations with
aggressive peers (OR = 3) were risk factors for violence. Teacher's report of SDQ
revealed abnormal score of student's behavior in (32.4%) and (22%) students of
public and private schools respectively. The most frequent problems revealed by
SDQ among victimized students of both schools was conduct problems (64.7%) in
teacher's report and peer relation problems 93.6% in parent's report. CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Abnormal and borderline scores of SDQ are high among studied
students, Follow up and supervision is needed to prevent violence among them. An
effective role model to direct student's behavior should receive more concern at
the school and home level.