Introduction:

the high prevalence of school bullying and its consequences make it a public health problem.

Objective:

to analyse the prevalence of school bullying and its association with psychosomatic problems in a population of adolescent students.

Materials and methods:

we conducted a cross-sectional study in a representative sample of 844 students enrolled in 5 secondary education schools (SESs) in the city of Cuenca (Spain). The main assessment instruments were the social acceptance subscale of the KIDSCREEN-52 (bullying) and the PSP scale (psychosomatic problems).

Results:

the prevalence of being subject to school bullying was 29.5%, with no differences based on age or sex. We found a higher frequency of psychosomatic problems in female and older adolescents. In students of both sexes, a higher frequency of these problems was associated with being bullied. The regression models built for each of the psychosomatic problems showed that, correcting for the influence of sex and age, being bullied is a predictor of psychosomatic problems and a poorer quality of life. The models that explained the largest percentages of the variance where those for the total score in the psychosomatic problem scale (21%), feelings of sadness (15%), headache (10%) and stomach ache (11%).

Conclusions:

psychosomatic problems are frequent in adolescents, especially those who are victims of school bullying. Health care professionals, especially doctors and nurses, should strongly consider the possibility of bullying when an adolescent exhibits psychosomatic symptoms, especially sadness, headache or stomach ache, with no apparent organic cause.

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