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Temporal trends of physical fights and physical attacks among adolescents aged 12-15 years from 30 countries from Africa, Asia, and the Americas

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posted on 2024-02-09, 16:40 authored by Lee Smith, Guillermo Lopez-Sanchez, Hans Oh, Louis Jacob, Karel Kostev, Masoud Rahmati, Laurie Butler, Helen Keyes, Yvonne Barnett, Dong Keon Yon, Jae Il Shin, Ai Koyanagi

Purpose

There is a scarcity of literature on temporal trends in physical fighting and physical attacks among the global adolescent population. Therefore, we aimed to examine these trends in a nationally representative sample of school-going adolescents aged 12–15 years from 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, for which temporal trends of physical fighting and physical attacks are largely unknown.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey 2003–2017 were analyzed. Self-reported data on past 12-month physical fights and physical attacks were collected. For each survey, the prevalence and 95% confidence interval of physical fights and physical attacks were calculated. Linear regression models were used to examine crude linear trends.

Results

Data on 190,493 students aged 12–15 years were analyzed [mean (standard deviation) age 13.7 (1.0) years; 48.9% boys]. The mean prevalence of past 12-month physical fight and physical attack was 36.5% and 37.2%, respectively. Significant decreasing trends in physical fights were observed in 16/30 countries, while significant increasing trends were found in 2/30 countries. For physical attacks, significant decreasing and increasing trends were observed in 13/26 and 1/26 countries, respectively. The remaining countries showed stable trends.

Discussion

It is encouraging that decreasing trends in physical fighting and physical attacks were observed across a large number of countries. However, stable trends were also common, while increasing trends also existed, suggesting that global efforts to address adolescent violence are still required.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Publication title

Journal of Adolescent Health

ISSN

1054-139X

Publisher

Elsevier

File version

  • Published version

Item sub-type

Article

Affiliated with

  • School of Psychology and Sport Science Outputs