School bullying: an international public health emergency correlated to psychosomatic problems as long-term sequelae

AIM: School bullying is a proactive, intentional and repeated form of aggression. Approximately 20% of youths report being involved in bullying as perpetrators and/or victims. The purpose of this research was to investigate bullying prevalence in a sample of school Italian children in Rome. METHODS: A total of 721 children from 6th and 8th grades completed a self-report anonymous questionnaire adapted from the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire, including specific items to investigate about children bullying involvement at school. RESULTS: Prevalence of relational, physical and verbal bullying events resulted similar for 6th and 8th grades (5%, 3.6% and 3.9% versus 5.2%, 3% and 5.1% respectively). Boys compared to girls resulted more likely involved in bullying events, particularly in physical ones (4.9% versus 1.7%). The prevalence of both bullies and bully-victims was similar in boys and girls, regardless of age (53% and 47.4% among males versus 47% and 52.6% among females respectively). The 39.4% and 41.2% of students reported lack of intervention on victim’s behalf by teachers and schoolmates respectively. CONCLUSION: Data from our study support the importance of further education to provide effective prevention programming. Pediatricians can play an important role in detection of potential victims limiting long-term psychosomatic and psychosocial sequelae.