Family and community violence of schoolchildren from the city of São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This descriptive study aimed to investigate the association between violence in the family, school and community experienced by school children/adolescents of the city of São Gonçalo (RJ), Brazil. Questionnaires were administered to the mothers/guardians to assess violence in the family and school and to children to check their perceptions of community violence. Multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis, two exploratory descriptive techniques, were employed. Data from 280 schoolchildren were analyzed. A total of 43.9% of mothers reported that their children had been physically abused in their homes. With regard to children's/adolescents' perception of community violence, 93.2% said they had experienced or witnessed these events in their communities. For both sexes there was the formation of a cluster of categories with the presence of violence among siblings, presence of severe physical assault and verbal assault committed by parents. Among girls, the presence of violence in the school formed a cluster with the highest category of violence in the community. In conclusion, it should be emphasized that public policies aimed at dealing with violence should expand their scope to the various forms of violence affecting children.