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Victimisation in urban primary schools of high‐poverty areas: associations with health‐related quality of life, depression and social support
Author(s) -
Hyland John M.,
Hyland Pauline K.,
Comiskey Catherine M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/camh.12201
Subject(s) - victimisation , poverty , aggression , psychology , mental health , suicide prevention , depression (economics) , poison control , quality of life (healthcare) , injury prevention , irish , occupational safety and health , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , environmental health , political science , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , law , economics , psychotherapist , macroeconomics
Background Although a widespread issue, research on victimisation among primary school children in high‐poverty regions is limited. The aim of this research was to explore victimisation incidence and associated mental health correlates from first‐wave data of the ‘Healthy Schools’ programme in a high‐poverty urban region. Method The study explored victimisation incidences among 458 Irish primary school children and associations with depression, health‐related quality of life ( HRQ oL) and social support. Results Victimisation (33.8%) was consistent with recent literature. On the stand‐alone victimisation question, victims scored lower on all HRQ oL subscales compared with nonvictims. Further categorisation revealed that frequent victims scored lower on four of these subscales, compared with nonvictims. Furthermore, over half of children felt that their school was not doing enough to combat school aggression. Conclusions Although from a high‐poverty area, rates were consistent with data from more affluent areas. Results stress an importance on specific school aggression behaviours when measuring victimisation rates, along with corresponding health consequences. Future research should continue to adopt the behaviour‐based assessment of victimisation to provide an overall picture of the problem.