Introduction

Bullying is a complex and multifactorial social phenomenon, which refers to the exposure of different forms of abuse on a repetitive, systematic and intentional basis.

Objective

To determine the prevalence and factors associated with bullying in adolescents at three public educational institutions. Materials and

Methods

A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted with 816 adolescents covering sixth to ninth grades from three educational institutions in Bucaramanga, Colombia, who were evaluated in 2014 through self-administered questionnaires.

Results

84.2% of the school-going adolescents reported having witnessed any type of violence, of which 33.8% were victims and 22.3% were aggressors. Verbal violence prevailed at 80.1%, followed by physical violence at 47.7% and psychological violence at 36.9%. No relationship was found in the bivariate analysis between bullying and gender, school, school hours, academic year, type of family and their role as witnesses and victims. An association was found in the bivariate and multivariate analysis between school bullying and gender, type of family, smoking and consumption of energy drinks in the aggressor role.

Discussion

The identification of the variables associated with school bullying facilitates prioritizing and guiding decisions that will be made regarding this issue.

Conclusions

School bullying is a complex phenomenon that requires the articulation of the academic community, parents, healthcare professionals and local authorities.

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