Bullying in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Mexico: prevalence and associated factors

This paper seeks to determine the prevalence of victims of school bullying among youth enrolled in public secondary schools in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Mexico and to identify the factors associated with being a victim of bullying in the period 2009-2011. An analytic cross-sectional study was carried out. A multistage probability sampling was designed for the public secondary schools, in which 1,706 students between 11 and 16 years old were studied. A questionnare with four sections was applied in order to identify victims of bullying. A logistic regression model was then used to measure the association between the factors analyzed and being a victim of bullying. The prevalence of school bullying was 17.6% (95% CI 15.8; 19.5). Personal factors, such as the feeling of not being accepted by peers or not spending much time with friends, were the factors with the strongest statistically significant association with being a victim of bullying.