Bullying behaviours among students in Pavia, Italy: prevalence and association with stress and cannabis use

• Published in: Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences 2011-12, Vol.20 (4), p.339-343
• Main Authors: Martinelli, V., Brondino, N., Rossi, S., Panigati, R., Magnani, R., Cappucciati, M., Vecchia, L., Tinelli, S., Emanuele, E., Politi, P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Bullying - psychology; Crime Victims - psychology; Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data; Female; Humans; Italy; Male; Marijuana Smoking - epidemiology; Marijuana Smoking - psychology; Prevalence; Sex Distribution; Social Perception; Stress, Psychological - epidemiology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 2045-7960; 2045-7979
• DOI: 10.1017/S2045796011000461

This study examined the prevalence of students' reported experiences of bullying and victimization in primary and secondary schools and their association with levels of perceived stress and cannabis use. We consecutively enrolled 407 students attending three secondary schools in Pavia (Italy). Bullying and victimization were measured using the retrospective bullying questionnaire (RQB). The 10-item perceived stress scale (PSS-10) was used to assess the degree to which situations in life were perceived as stressful. Data on demographic characteristics and cannabis use in the previous 6 months were also collected. There were 328 victims (80.6%) and 221 bullies (52.1%). The results of the stepwise regression analysis with bullying as the dependent variable were significant with either male sex (R2 = 0.030, p = 0.024) or PSS-10 scores (R2 0.056, p = 0.036) in the model. With victimization as the dependent variable, only the PSS-10 scores were retained in the model as an independent predictor variable (R2 = 0.048, p