Characteristics of school violence in Brazil: a systematic review of quantitative studies

Objectives:

to measure and identify factors associated with school violence in Brazil, as reported in the literature.

Methods:

articles containing quantitative data on school violence in Brazil were selected from the SciELO, LILACS and PubMed databases, up to May 2013. The selection of articles and extraction of data were carried out independently by two researchers and inconsistencies resolved by consensus.

Results:

twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Most of these studies were carried out among basic education students in public schools in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil in the 2000s. School violence was defined differently and different types studied in the articles examined. Psychological and physical violence were the most common forms addressed. Bullying was commonly cited as a specific kind of school violence. Being male and having been subjected to abuse in the family were the factors most frequently associated with school violence.

Conclusions:

the present review noted the paucity of quantitative studies of violence in Brazilian schools, especially among teachers. There is a need to establish criteria for the study of this phenomenon, in order to compare its geographical and temporal distribution.

Bullying; Violence; School health; Review