Violence and Child Rights in Brazil: Can the Cycle of Violence Be Broken? 2016

Violence and child rights: an educational-scientific cooperation between Norway and Brazil.

Violence is a serious problem affecting Latin-American children. To address this global challenge, University of Tromsø and Universidade Federal de São Paulo conducted the project “Violence and child rights in Brazil: can the cycle of violence be broken?” funded by the Research Council of Norway. The aim was to estimate the prevalence of child mental health problems and violence exposure based on baseline data. This longitudinal study was conducted in Itaboraí, a low-income Brazilian city, involving a population-based sample of 1409 6-to-15-year olds (response rate=87.8%). All mothers/substitutes and 680 adolescents (response rate=94.4%) were interviewed in 2014. After a mean interval of 12.9 months, 1189 mothers (84.4%) and 550 adolescents (80.9%) were interviewed again. The used three-stage sampling procedure included first a random sample of census units (107/420), second a random sample of eligible households (residence of a 6-to-15-year old and his/her biological/adoptive/step mother - 15 households from each selected census unit) and third, a random selection of the index child among all eligible children in the household. The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) identified children/adolescents' mental health problems. The Core Questionnaire of the World Studies of Abuse in the Family Environment (WorldSAFE) identified severe physical punishment from mother/father. Fifteen items related to peer harassment previously used in a Norwegian study with schoolchildren evaluated school violence. Mothers and adolescents' perception of bullying was also investigated. Eleven items modified after being selected from the Richters and Martinez's Exposure to Community Violence Scale identified victimization by community violence. Percentages were weighted to generate prevalence rates. SDQ applied to mothers showed similar prevalence rates of total problems in the clinical range among children (21.4%) and adolescents (20.9%) but the rate of emotional problems was higher among adolescents (24.4% vs. 18.5%). Among 11-to-15-year olds, mothers reported higher rates than adolescents for all SDQ problem scales. According to mothers, 9.7% of children and 11.0% of adolescents were severely punished in the past 12 months with hitting with an object and beating as the most frequent events in both age groups. In mothers' opinion, similar proportions of children and adolescents were threatened/maltreated/chased by peers at school in the past 12 months (7.7% and 10.0% respectively). Self-reports of in-school adolescents (N=669) indicated that 5.5% suffered bullying more than once a week in the past 6 months and 21.9% were exposed to at least one school violence event occurring more than once in the past 6 months. Regarding victimization by one or more community violence events in the past 12 months, similar prevalence rates were noted among children and adolescents (6.4% vs. 6.2%) based on mothers' report but adolescents' self-reports indicated a higher rate (14.2%). Significant numbers of children/adolescents living in Itaboraí present mental health problems and are exposed to domestic/school/community violence. Future papers will analyse longitudinal data to verify the impact of violence exposure on children/adolescents' mental health. The expertise acquired through this international initiative will establish the groundwork for a long-term Norway-Brazil partnership that will favour educational-scientific collaboration between both countries.