Citation

Senanayake SJ, Gunawardena S, Wickramasinghe S, Wickramasinghe C, Gunawardena NS, Lokubalasooriya A, Peiris R, Agarval N, Rani M. Asia Pac. J. Public Health 2019; 31(2): 147-156.

Affiliation

South East Asia Regional Office World Health Organization, Delhi, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1010539519825600

PMID

30678466

Abstract

Interpersonal violence among adolescents is an issue of global public health concern, leading to adverse physical and psychological outcomes among children and young people under the age of 18 years. This article discusses the prevalence of interpersonal violence and identifies their associated factors among school-going adolescents of ages 13 to 17 years using the data from the Sri Lankan Global School-Based Health Survey conducted in 2016. Of the 3262 students who participated, 35.1% (95% confidence interval = 31.0% to 39.5%) were physically attacked and 44.2% (95% confidence interval = 39.2% to 49.4%) were in a fight with peers, one or more times during the 12 months prior to the survey. Being bullied by peers, male sex, 13 to 15 years age group, smoking and alcohol use, considering or attempting suicide, missing classes without permission, and parents not being aware of students' activities were associated with violence. The study highlights the need for violence prevention programs to address the risk factors among school-going adolescents.

Language: en

Keywords

GSHS; Global School Health Survey; injuries; school-going adolescents; violence