Social distancing as a protective barrier against bullying actions among schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND

Violence in the work or school environment is becoming a public health problem. Bullying in this scenario is characterized by a set of aggressive, repetitive, intentional behaviors which occur without evident motivation and affects countless young people daily.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to verify the incidence of bullying cases of elementary and high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the reasons for this victimization from an emic view; in addition, to compare associated factors such as nutritional status and body image between victims and non-victims of bullying.

METHOD

This is a non-probabilistic descriptive design involving 115 students regularly enrolled in elementary and high school in public schools in the city of Dourados-MS, Brazil.

RESULTS

The results indicated an incidence of 20.9% of victims, with verbal aggression (swearing, nicknames, gossip) and social exclusion being the most recurrent. A total of 78.2% of the victim students did not suffer bullying during social distancing, and 87.3% felt safer in their homes. The rate of overweight and obesity was similar between victims and non-victims, similar to the body perception result.

CONCLUSIONS

This study indicated that social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic was a protective barrier in school bullying actions.