Bullying in adolescents across three years in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional and prospective analysis

Bullying has been identified as a risk factor for many issues among adolescents. Although it was already considered a public health issue in Brazil before the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how the pandemic and associated public health measures have affected bullying behavior. To explore changes in bullying victimization and perpetration among Brazilian high school students from 2019 to 2022. This study utilizes data from the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Lifestyle (ELEVA), employing a repeated cross-sectional with a nested cohort design. Adolescents (n = 1.987, 50.2% female, mean age 16.4 years) answered a questionnaire and bullying-related information were extracted from two different questions for victims and perpetrators. Multilevel logistic regression models were used. Bullying victimization decreased from 46% (95% CI: 40-52%) in 2019 to 30% (95% CI: 24-36%) in 2022 (OR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.30-0.69, p