Peer victimization as reported by children, teachers, and parents in relation to children's health symptoms

In a cross-sectional study of 419 children in grades 1-10 the frequency of peer victimization was reported by children, teachers and parents. Emotional and somatic symptoms (sadness, anxiety, stomach ache, and headache) were reported by the children.Frequencies of victimization reported by different informants were compared by the marginal homogeneity test for paired ordinal data, concordance between informants by cross-tables and Spearman's rho, and associations of victimization with health symptoms were estimated by logistic regression.The concordance of peer victimization reported by children, teachers, and parents varied from complete agreement to complete discordance also for the highest frequency (weekly/daily) of victimization. Children's self-reported frequency of victimization was strongly and positively associated with their reports of emotional and somatic symptoms. Frequency of victimization reported by teachers or parents showed similar but weaker associations with the children's health symptoms.The agreement between children and significant adults in reporting peer victimization was low to moderate, and the associations of reported victimization with the children's self-reported health symptoms varied substantially between informants. It may be useful to assess prospectively the effects of employing different sources of information related to peer victimization.Health consequences of peer victimization include higher prevalence of physical complaints and psychosocial maladjustment [1-13], with fairly similar effects between countries [10]. Williams and co-workers drew attention to the importance of dose, and suggested that higher frequencies of victimization were associated with greater risk of health problems [14]. Persistent victimization over an extended time period also predicts more serious health problems [15].Bullying usually includes aggressive behaviour with repetitive acts and imbalance of power [16,17]. Previous research has shown great vari