Community violence exposure and school bullying and their relationship to antisocial behavior in early adolescence

Community violence exposure and school bullying and their relationship to antisocial behavior in early adolescence V. Sobotkova, T. Osecka, M. Jelinek, M. Blatny, M. Hrdlicka Objectives. The study deals with antisocial behavior of school children in urban areas, its typology and relationship to exposure to violence in the community and to school bullying. Subjects and settings. Participants were adolescents participating in international project The Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) that aims to assess risk and protective factors for psychosocial adjustment of children and youth. The sample consisted of 12 year-old and 14-year-old students from schools in 13 regional capitals. The sample consisted of 2.973 persons (53 % girls, mean age 13.5 years, SD = 1.1): 12 years old cohort consisting of 1.447 adolescents - 54 % of girls; 14 years old cohort consisting of 1.526 adolescents - 53 % of girls. SAHA was used to measure antisocial behavior, exposure to violence and school bullying. Hypothesis. Created empirical types of adolescents with varying degrees of antisocial behavior differ in violence exposure, types with higher levels of antisocial behavior are exposed to a greater extent to violence and lower extent to bullying as objects. Statistical analysis. Non-hierarchical cluster analysis (k-means) to identify four types of antisocial behavior. Types comparision in violence exposure and bullying (Kruskal-Wallis test, Dunn post-hoc tests). Results. Authors found relationships between exposure to violence (community and bullying) and the type of behavior (exposure to violence as a witness (chi(2) = 265.7, df = 3, p<0.01), exposure to violence as a victim (chi(2) = 236.6, df = 3, p<0.01); object of bullying (chi(2) = 263.4, df = 3, p<0.01). The highest rates of exposure to violence in all three variables have adolescents with the highest rates of antisocial behavior. Study limitation. Bullying from aggressor's point of view and cyberbullying were not analysed.