Peer victimization in Primary School. Gender difference

Purpose: The peer victimization is frequent phenomenon in the school. The aim of study was to investigate the gender distinction in the peer victimization, also considering the role that physical activity inside and outside school could have in this phenomenon. Methods: The study included 277 students (142 females; 134 males), between the ages of 8 and 10, attending the primary school. A questionnaire based on "Multi-dimensional Peer-Victimization Scale (MPVS)'' (Mynard et al., 2000), Italian version (Scarpa et al, 2010) and adapted to the age of the subjects, was given, to evaluate four areas of victimization (physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation and attack on property). In addition, subjects were asked which physical activities they practiced in and out of school. Results: The results showed that the phenomenon victimization is present in a content way, and that males are more involved than females. Physical victimization falls more in the male gender (average value of 2±1.4 and 1.6±0.9 for the males and females, respectively), while the social manipulation in the women gender (average value of 1.9±1.2 and 1.7±1.1 for the females and males, respectively). The correlation between two or more macro-areas is there for the 74.32% of the cases and verbal victimization is the most widespread phenomenon in our sample (9.46%). The extra-school physical activity is performed by the majority of students (83.57%). Conclusions: The results confirm existing studies in the literature. The peer victimization includes not only being the obvious target of physical attacks but also includes more subtle forms of abuse, falling more in females behavior than in males.