Bullying victimization: A risk factor of health problems among adolescents with hearing impairment

Objective: to find bullying victimisation as a predictor of physical and psychological health problems among school-going children with hearing impairment. methods: the co-relational cross-sectional studywas conducted in gujrat district of pakistan's punjab province from august 2014 to january 2015,and comprised adolescents with hearing impairment. the subjects were selected through multi-stage stratified proportionate sampling from the local schools. two standardised instruments were administered to assess the relationship between bullying and health problems. multidimensional peer victimisation scale was used for measuring bullying behaviour,while the health questionnaire was used to assess physical and psychological health problems. both scales were translated into urdu using lexicon equivalence method of translation. results: of the 286 subjects,183(64%) were boys. a significant positive relationship was found between the four components of bullying and health problems (p<0.05 each). boys experiencedmore physical victimisation than girls (p<0.05),but there was no significant difference between girls and boys in social manipulation (p>0.05). conclusions: children with hearing impairment experienced bullying just like those without such an impairment. bullying needs to be considered a significant public health issue and should be dealt with effectively. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.