Impact of family and personal factors on campus violence perpetration among urban primary school students

  Objective  To examine the prevalence of and the impact of personal and family factors on campus violence perpetration among pupils.

  Methods  Using stratified cluster sampling, we recruited 6 066 grade 3 – 5 students at 12 primary schools in urban Luzhou of Sichuan province and conducted a self-administered anonymous survey with a self-designed questionnaire between November 2018 and January 2019.

  Results  Of the 6 048 students with valid response, 30.20% reported campus violence perpetration during previous one year. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that significant risk factors for the students' campus violence perpetration included general relationship with siblings (compared to good relationship: odds ratio OR = 1.28, P = 0.046), maternal education of lower than college level (senior high school/technical secondary school: OR = 1.26, P = 0.036; junior high school: OR = 1.42, P = 0.002; primary school: OR = 1.59, P < 0.001), in a non-native family (compared to in a family-of-origin: OR = 1.34, P = 0.001); while, significant protective factors were no witnessed quarrel between parents (OR = 0.53, P < 0.001) and with positive parenting style (OR = 0.54, P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  Poor family structure, tense family environment, negative parenting style and lower maternal education are associated with campus violence perpetration among primary school students.