School bullying in adolescent and young adults with congenital heart disease

Abstract

Since individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD) often require long-term specialized care, we hypothesized that they could suffer more bullying at school than people without cardiac defects. A descriptive, transversal and observational study in outpatients with CHD and a control population matched by age and sex was carried out. Variables included were age, gender, educational level, type of CHD and complexity, cardiovascular risk factors, alcohol and drug abuse and previous psychiatric disorders. Three questionnaires were used to determine quality of life (EuroQol-5D [EQ-5D]), bullying (European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire) and cyberbullying (European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire). A total of 127 participants were included in the study: 49 individuals with CHD (mean age 20.7 +/- 5.3 years and 56% male) and 78 in the control group. Seventeen individuals had mild defects, 24 moderate and 8 severe CHD defects. Ten individuals with CHD had an associated syndrome. Those with CHD scored significantly higher than controls on bullying questions related to being hit, kicked or pushed (p = 0.036) and threatened (p = 0.020). Similarly, cases scored also significantly higher in the questions related to aggressive behavior: having hit, kicked or pushed someone (p = 0.005), having insulted someone (p = 0.004) or having spread rumors about someone (p = 0.021). Both physical aggression (hitting, kicking or pushing) and the threats remained statistically significant regardless of the study level. On the other hand, when the questions were unified into physical, verbal or social bullying, individuals with CHD scored significantly higher than controls in physical victimization (p = 0.023) and physical (p = 0.009) and verbal (p = 0.003) aggression. In conclusion, people with CHD reported suffering a greater number of assaults than the control population.