2003 Primary Prevention Awareness, Attitude, and Use Survey

Victims and Perpetrators of Problem Behaviors

Victims (PPAAUS items 68-73) Within the previous year, an average of 31 percent of the Franklin County students in grades six through eight felt that other students had spread lies or false rumors about them more than once. Twenty percent of the middle-school students said they had been verbally attacked two times or more, and 15 percent felt they had been ostracized (left out of a group or activity to hurt you) more than once. Among middle-school students, five percent said that at least twice in the past year, someone had taken money or things directly from them using force, a weapon, or threats. Seven percent reported that they had been physically attacked at school at least twice, and nine percent said they had feared for their physical safety at school two or more times within the past year.

In the Franklin County Schools, 28 percent of the high-school students said they had been victims of lies or false rumors more than once in the past year, and 21 percent had been victims of verbal attacks. Eleven percent had been ostracized. At least twice in the past year, three percent of the high-school students had something forcefully taken from them, and four percent had been physically attacked at school. An average of seven percent of the high-school students said they had feared for their physical safety more than once in the previous year.

Perpetrators (PPAAUS items 61-67) An average of 24 percent of the Franklin County middle-school students and 21 percent of the high-school students reported that they had told lies or spread false rumors about someone at least two times in the previous year. Eleven percent of the middle-school students and 11 percent of the high-school students had, on two or more occasions, left someone out of a group or activity to hurt that person. An average of three percent of the students in sixth through eighth grade and three percent of the students in ninth through twelfth grade said they had used force at least twice in the previous year to take money or things from others.

At least two times in the past year, 12 percent of the Franklin County students in grades six through eight and 14 percent in grades nine through twelve had bullied (“pushed others around”) someone to get something they wanted; nine percent and 11 percent respectively had bullied others to intimidate them (“make them afraid”).

Sixteen percent of the middle-school students said they had threatened to beat up someone at least twice in the past year; 16 percent reported they had hit someone with their fists or beat up someone at least twice. Among high-school students, an average of 18 percent had threatened physical violence two times or more, and 13 percent had perpetrated it.

< Previous Page  |  Table of Contents   |   Next Page >