Temporal Trends of Physical Fights and Physical Attacks Among Adolescents Aged 12-15 years From 30 Countries From Africa, Asia, and the Americas

Abstract

Purpose: There is a scarcity of literature on temporal trends in physical fighting and physical attacks among the global adolescent population. Therefore, we aimed to examine these trends in a nationally representative sample of school -going adolescents aged 12-15 years from 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, for which temporal trends of physical fighting and physical attacks are largely unknown. Methods: Cross-sectional data from the Global School -based Student Health Survey 2003-2017 were analyzed. Self-reported data on past 12-month physical fights and physical attacks were collected. For each survey, the prevalence and 95% confidence interval of physical fights and physical attacks were calculated. Linear regression models were used to examine crude linear trends. Results: Data on 190,493 students aged 12-15 years were analyzed [mean (standard deviation) age 13.7 (1.0) years; 48.9% boys]. The mean prevalence of past 12-month physical fight and physical attack was 36.5% and 37.2%, respectively. Significant decreasing trends in physical fights were observed in 16/30 countries, while significant increasing trends were found in 2/30 countries. For physical attacks, significant decreasing and increasing trends were observed in 13/26 and 1/26 countries, respectively. The remaining countries showed stable trends. Discussion: It is encouraging that decreasing trends in physical fighting and physical attacks were observed across a large number of countries. However, stable trends were also common, while increasing trends also existed, suggesting that global efforts to address adolescent violence are still required. (c) 2023 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).