Bullying in Brazilian schools: results from the National School-based Health Survey (PeNSE), 2009

O objetivo deste estudo é identificar e descrever a ocorrência do bullying, episódios de humilhação ou provocação perpetrados pelos colegas da escola, entre estudantes do 9º ano do ensino fundamental de escolas públicas e privadas das 26 capitais dos estados brasileiros e do Distrito Federal. Trata-se de estudo transversal feito com 60.973 escolares de 1.453 escolas públicas e privadas. A análise dos dados aponta que 5,4% (IC95%: 5,1%-5,7%) dos estudantes relataram ter sofrido bullying quase sempre ou sempre nos últimos 30 dias; 25,4% (IC95%: 24,8%-26,0%) foram raramente ou às vezes vítimas de bullying e 69,2% (IC95%: 68,5%-69,8%) não sentiram nenhuma humilhação ou provocação (bullying). A capital com maior frequência de foi Belo Horizonte-MG (6,9%; IC95%: 5,9%-7,9) e a menor foi Palmas-TO (3,5%; IC95%: 2,6%-4,5%). Meninos relatam mais bullying (6,0%; IC95%: 5,5%-6,5%) do que meninas (4,8%; IC95%: 4,4%-5,3%). Não houve diferença entre escolas públicas (5,5%; IC95%: 5,1%-5,8%) e privadas (5,2%; IC95%: 4,6%-5,8%), exceto em Aracaju-SE, onde foi registrada maior ocorrência de bullying em escolas privadas. Os dados mostram urgente necessidade de ações intersetoriais a partir de políticas e práticas educativas que efetivem redução e prevenção da ocorrência do bullying nas escolas.The aim of this study is to identify and describe the occurrence of bullying among students in the 9th year (8th grade) from public and private schools from 26 Brazilian state capitals and the Federal District. It is a cross-sectional study involving 60,973 students and 1,453 public and private schools. Data analysis indicates that 5.4% (IC95%: 5.1%-5.7%) of students reported having suffered bullying almost always or always in the last 30 days, 25.4% (IC95%: 24.8%-26.0%) were rarely or sometimes the victim of bullying and 69.2% (IC95%: 68.5%-69.8%) of students felt no humiliation or provocation at school. The capital with higher frequency of bullying was Belo Horizonte (6.9%; IC95%: 5,9%-7,9%), Minas Gerais, and the lowest was Palmas (3.5%; IC95%: 2.6%-4.5%), Tocantins. Boys reported more bullying (6,0%; IC95%: 5.5%-6.5%) compared with girls (4,8%; IC95%: 4.4%-5.3%). There was no difference between public schools 5.5% (IC95%: 5.1%-5.8%) and private (5.2%) (IC95%: 4.6%-5.8%), except in Aracaju, Sergipe, that show more bullying in private schools. The findings indicate an urgent need for intersectoral action from educational policies and practices that enforce the reduction and prevention of the occurrence of bullying in schools in Brazil

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Social representations of teachers about bullying and their confrontation in the context of teaching practice

Estudos nacionais e internacionais têm revelado que o bullying expõe crianças e adolescentes à condição de vulnerabilidade. Sabe-se também que não é a escola a única responsável pela produção de violência neste contexto, pois trata-se de um fenômeno complexo, dinâmico, multifacetado e multicausal, com raízes também em questões de ordem macrossociais e econômicas, exigindo, portanto, enfrentamentos no contexto da intersetorialidade. Este estudo cuja abordagem metodológica foi qualitativa, teve como objetivos apreender as representações sociais dos professores sobre o bullying entre os alunos e conhecer as estratégias adotadas frente ao fenômeno no contexto da prática docente. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em 4 escolas da rede municipal de educação, localizadas na Região Norte da cidade de Ribeirão Preto, Estado de São Paulo, as quais foram selecionadas por fazerem parte do contexto de atuação profissional da pesquisadora. Por conseguinte, o grupo participante foi representado por 10 professores de quintos anos do primeiro segmento do Ensino Fundamental. Como instrumento de coleta de dados, optou-se pela entrevista semiestruturada e a análise dos dados foi realizada à luz da Teoria das Representações Sociais. Reconhece-se que os professores são sujeitos de transformação com possibilidades de (re) construção de práticas que sejam referência no enfrentamento do fenômeno na escola. Os resultados demonstraram que os professores sabem conceituar teoricamente o fenômeno bullying, reconhecem que o problema afeta a dinâmica escolar em vários aspectos, causando exclusão e impactos negativos na aprendizagem, na saúde e no desenvolvimento do aluno, assim como nas relações sociais e no ambiente escolar. O estudo revelou dois grandes desafios aos docentes: 1º) A dificuldade no reconhecimento do fenômeno frente a outros tipos de violência manifestados no contexto, tais como atos isolados e não repetitivos de violência escolar. Embora, teoricamente, os docentes soubessem conceituar o fenômeno, talvez pelo fato da mídia abordá-lo em quantidade excessiva, contudo, na prática, o reconhecimento do problema é algo complexo. 2º) O outro desafio revelado pelo estudo é a ausência de trabalho articulado e intersetorial frente ao fenômeno, salvo alguns projetos desconectados e não resolutivos, reforçados na transmissão de valores morais aos alunos. Observou-se que os professores entrevistados agiram pontual e emergencialmente, porém, não de modo a enfrentar efetivamente o fenômeno. Não evidenciamos nenhuma ação articulada entre direção da escola e professores, entre escola e Secretaria Municipal da Educação e tampouco entre escola e serviços de saúde, ou demais áreas sociais adjacentes. Os professores não se furtaram em buscar formas de combate aos vários tipos de violência escolar, ainda que pontuais e desarticuladas. Entretanto, tais ações não se mostraram efetivas, acabando por reforçar práticas de violência cada vez mais recorrentes no âmbito escolar. Diante disto, constatou-se que a escola continua reproduzindo a exclusão social, a violência, e, sobretudo, o bullying de grande parcela de alunos que por ali passam, fazendo-se premente a construção e implementação de programas de enfrentamentos na perspectiva da intersetorialidade consolidados, quiçá por políticas públicas de ordem municipal, estadual ou federalNational and international studies have revealed that bullying exposes schoolchildren to vulnerability. It is also known that school is not the only one responsible for the production of violence in this context, since it is a complex, dynamic, multifaceted and multi-causal phenomenon, also rooted in macro-social and economic issues. It demands, therefore, confrontations in the context of intersectoriality. The study, which methodological approach was qualitative, had as objectives to apprehend the social representations of teachers about bullying among students and to know strategies against the phenomenon in the context of teaching practice. In this sense, we entered 4 schools of the municipal education network located in the North Region of the city of Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo. Therefore, the sample of the study was represented by 10 fifth-grade teachers from the first segment of Elementary School. As a data collection instrument, the semi-structured interview and data analysis was done in light of the Theory of Social Representations. It is recognized that teachers are subjects of transformation with possibilities of (re) construction of practices that are a reference in facing the phenomenon in school. The results showed that teachers know how to theoretically conceptualize the bullying phenomenon, recognize that, in fact, the problem affects school dynamics in several aspects, causing exclusion and negative impacts on students learning and development, social relations and school environment. The study revealed two major challenges to teachers: 1) The difficulty in recognizing the phenomenon in front of other types of violence that are present in the context, such as isolated and nonrepetitive acts of school violence.Although, theoretically, the teachers could conceptualize the phenomenon, perhaps because the media approached it in excessive quantity, however, in practice, recognition of the problem is not something complex.2) The other challenge revealed by the study is the absence of an articulated and intersectorial work in front of the phenomenon, except for some disconnected and incipient projects, such as regarding the transmission of moral values to the students. In fact, what has been done by the majority of teachers interviewed acted punctually and emergentially, but not in order to effectively face the phenomenon. There was no articulated action between school management and teachers, between school and municipal secretariat of education and neither between school and health services, or other adjacent social areas. The fact is that teachers did not shy away from seeking ways to combat the various types of violence manifested in school, even if they were punctual and disconnected actions. However, these actions were not effective, instead, they reinforced practices of violence that are increasingly recurrent in the school context. Therefore, the absence of a structured and articulated program does not lead to the combat or reduction of the phenomenon. It was found that the school continues to reproduce, the social exclusion, violence, and, above all, bullying of a large part of the students who pass by, making the construction and implementation of programs of confrontations in the perspective of intersectoriality consolidated, perhaps by public policies of municipal, state or federal orde

Bullying in Brazilian school children: analysis of the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PeNSE 2012)

OBJECTIVE: To describe the victimization and bullying practice in Brazilian school children, according to data from the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey and to compare the surveys from 2009 and 2012. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study with univariate and multivariate analyzes of the following variables: to have been treated badly by colleagues, to have been bullied and to have bullied other children. The following independent variables were analyzed: age, sex, race/color, type of school, maternal education. Prevalence rates were compared between the editions of 2009 and 2012 of the survey. RESULTS: Of all the adolescents analyzed, 27.5% have not been treated well by peers at school, with greater frequency among boys (OR = 1.50), at the age of 15 years (OR = 1.29) and 16 (OR = 1.41), public school students (OR = 2.08), black (OR = 1.18) and whose mothers had less education; 7.2% reported having been bullied, with a greater chance in younger students (13 years old), male (OR = 1.26), black (OR = 1.15) and indigenous (OR = 1.16) and whose mothers had less education; 20.8% reported to have bullied other children, with a greater chance for older students, at the age of 14 (OR = 1.08) and 15 years (OR = 1.18), male (OR = 1.87), black (OR = 1.14) and yellow (OR = 1.15), children of mothers with higher education, private school students. There was an increase of bullying in the Brazilian capitals, from 5.4 to 6.8%, between 2009 and 2012. DISCUSSION: The occurrence of bullying reveals that the Brazilian school context is also becoming a space of reproduction of violence, in which it is crucial to act intersectorally and to articulate social protection networks, aiming to face this issue