RESUMEN

Objetivo:

Identificar los factores asociados a las actitudes hacia la violencia (AHV) en escolares de instituciones educativas (IE) públicas ubicadas en zonas urbano-marginales de Lima Metropolitana en 2019.

Materiales y métodos:

Estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal. Los participantes fueron adolescentes de diez IE mixtas del sexto grado de primaria al tercer año de secundaria. Se empleó el cuestionario de actitudes hacia la violencia (CAHV25). En el análisis bivariado se empleó la prueba de coeficiente de correlación de Spearman, la U de Mann-Whitney y la H de Kruskal Wallis con post hoc de Dunn, ajustado por método de Bonferroni. Para determinar los factores asociados se realizó el análisis multivariado mediante un modelo de regresión binomial negative.

Resultados:

El 45,1% de escolares fueron de sexo femenino y el 87,3% recibió información sobre acoso escolar. En el análisis bivariado, se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los puntajes de las AHV con la edad (p = 0,003), el sexo (p < 0,001), tener una cuenta de red social (p = 0,009) y el año de estudios (p < 0,001); sin embargo, en el modelo multivariado, los factores que estuvieron asociados al puntaje total de las AHV fueron la edad (p = 0,012) y el sexo (p < 0,001).

Conclusión:

Los factores asociados a las AHV en escolares de IE públicas fueron la edad y el sexo; estos hallazgos indicarían la necesidad de considerar la perspectiva de género en el análisis de la violencia escolar y diferenciar las intervenciones según edad.

Palabras clave:
Actitud; Acoso Escolar; Adolescente; Estudiantes

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To identify factors associated with attitudes towards violence (ATV) in schoolchildren from public educational institutions (EI) located in marginal urban areas of Metropolitan Lima in 2019.

Materials and methods:

Observational, descriptive and transversal study. The sample was made up of adolescents from 10 mixed-gender EIs enrolled between the sixth grade of primary school and the third year of secondary school. The questionnaire of attitudes towards violence (CAHV-25) was used. During the bivariate analysis, the Spearman Correlation Coefficient, the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis H test with Dunn’s post-hoc adjusted by Bonferroni were used. To determine the associated factors, multivariate analysis was performed using negative binomial regression model.

Results:

45.1% of the schoolchildren were female and 87.3% received information on school bullying. In the bivariate analysis, statistically significant differences were found between the ATV scores and age (p = 0.003), sex (p < 0.001), having a social network account (p = 0.009) and year of study (p < 0.001); however, in the multivariate model, the factors associated with the total ATV scores were age (p = 0.012) and sex (p < 0.001).

Conclusion:

The factors associated with ATV in schoolchildren from public EIs were age and sex, these findings would indicate the need to consider the gender perspective in the analysis of school violence and differentiate interventions according to age.

Keywords:
Attitude; Bullying; Adolescent; Students

INTRODUCTION

Bullying is a form of violence and is a social problem that affects adolescents worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 34% of schoolchildren was bullied in the month prior to the survey and that 40% was involved in a fight the previous year; it also notes that schoolchildren are exposed to other forms of violence such as cyberbullying¹1. Organización Mundial de la Salud. Preventing violence through schools. Bulletin of the World Health Organization [Internet]. OMS; 2019 [citado el 30 de mayo de 2020]. Disponible en: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/326943/PMC6705508.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/hand... . Likewise, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) states that 1 out of 3 students between 13 and 15 years old experienced bullying and 3 out of 10 adolescents admitted to bull others at school ²2. UNICEF. A familiar face: violence in the lives of children and adolescents [Internet]. New York: United Nation's Children's Fund; 2017 [citado el 30 de mayo de 2020]. Disponible en: https://data.unicef.org/resources/a-familiar-face.
https://data.unicef.org/resources/a-fami... . Meanwhile, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the prevalence of school bullying is between 20 and 30% and that of cyber-bullying between 2.5 and 42.5% ³3. Herrera López M, Romera EM, Ortega Ruiz R. Bullying y cyberbullying en Latinoamérica: un estudio bibliométrico. Revista Mexicana de Investigación Educativa. 2018;23(76):125-55.^,44. Erazo Santander OA. Descripción, tipología e intencionalidad de la intimidación escolar en estudiantes de sexto a octavo de bachillerato. Psicogente. 2018;21(40):106-23. doi: 10.17081/psico.21.40.3078.
https://doi.org/10.17081/psico.21.40.307... .

In Peru, Romani et al. estimated that the prevalence of high school students who report being victims of school violence was 56.4%⁵5. Romaní F, Gutiérrez C. Auto-reporte de victimización escolar y factores asociados en escolares peruanos de educación secundaria, año 2007. Revista Peruana de Epidemiología. 2010;14(3):201-209., and Oriol et al. reported that 59.4% of adolescents witnessed violent behavior in the educational institution (EI) and 40.5% were abused or insulted by their peers ⁶6. Oriol X, Miranda R, Amutio A, Acosta HC, Mendoza MC, Torres-Vallejos J. Violent relationships at the social-ecological level: A multi-mediation model to predict adolescent victimization by peers, bullying and depression in early and late adolescence. PLoS ONE. 2017;12(3):1-15. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174139. eCollection 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.017... . Meanwhile, the Sistema Especializado en Reporte de Casos sobre Violencia Escolar (SíseVe) of the Ministerio de Educación (MINEDU) shows, for the period 2015 to 2019, that the cases in Lima increased four times and almost three times in the entire country⁷7. Ministerio de Educación. SISEVE Contra la violencia escolar [Internet]. MINEDU; 2018 [citado el 8 de junio de 2020]. Disponible en: http://www.siseve.pe/web/.
http://www.siseve.pe/web/... . In addition, the longitudinal study Children of the Millennium reported that the main reason why children are not comfortable in school is because they are victims of aggression by their peers⁸8. Sánchez A, Hidalgo A. Medición de la prevalencia de la violencia física y psicológica hacia niñas, niños y adolescentes, y sus factores asociados en el Perú. Evidencias de Niños del Milenio. En: Avances de Investigación: Etnicidad, género, ciudadanía y derechos [Internet]. GRADE; 2019 [citado el 8 de junio de 2019]. Disponible en: https://www.grade.org.pe/wp-content/uploads/GRADEai38.pdf.
https://www.grade.org.pe/wp-content/uplo... .

In the education sector, children’s attitudes have been reported to be the psychological causes of violent behavior ⁹9. Varela Garay RM, Ávila ME, Martínez B. Violencia escolar: Un análisis desde los diferentes contextos de interacción. Psychosocial Intervention. 2013;22(1):25-32. doi: 10.5093/in2013a4.
https://doi.org/10.5093/in2013a4... ^,1010. García KM, Orozco AE, Marín A. Creencias culturales y actitudes hacia la violencia como determinantes de la violencia escolar en adolescentes. Congreso Internacional de Investigación Academia Journals. 2017.. In addition, school violence is associated with attitudes towards violence (ATV)¹¹11. Chokprajakchat S, Kuanliang A, Sumretphol N. Correlation between attitude toward violence and peer victimization. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences. 2019;40(1):193-7. doi: 10.34044/j.kjss.2019.40.1.13.
https://doi.org/10.34044/j.kjss.2019.40.... ^,1212. Orosco AE, Mercado M del R. Actitudes hacia la violencia y creencias culturales en adolescentes involucrados en violencia escolar. Anuario de Psicología. 2019;49(2):94-103. doi: 10.1344/anpsic2019.49.10.
https://doi.org/10.1344/anpsic2019.49.10... , as well as the attitude towards teachers and if they are considered or not as important figures for the students. Similarly, the perception of injustice in school, disdain for studying, and negative attitudes toward the EI appear as recurrent elements in violent behaviors ¹³13. Martínez Ferrer B, Murgui Pérez S, Musitu Ochoa G, Monreal-Gimeno M del C. El rol del apoyo parental, las actitudes hacia la escuela y la autoestima en la violencia escolar en adolescentes. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology. 2008;8(3):679-92..

Ruiz et al., based on the premise that attitude guides behavior ¹⁴14. Schuette RA, Fazio RH. Attitude Accessibility and Motivation as Determinants of Biased Processing: A Test of the MODE Model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 1995;21(7):704-10. doi: 10.1177/0146167295217005.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167295217005... , defined attitude as a predisposition to act spontaneously ¹⁵15. Ruiz JA, Llor L, Puebla T, Llor B. Evaluación de las creencias actitudinales hacia la violencia en centros educativos: el CAHV-25. European Journal of Education and Psychology. 2009;2(1):25-35.; and developed a questionnaire that evaluates ATV considering items that explore specific thoughts, feelings and behaviors of peer violence during school. This instrument was applied in several countries and reported that men have higher levels of ATV than women ¹⁶16. Ruiz JA, Pina D, Puente E, Luna A, Llor B. Attitudes towards School Violence Questionnaire, Revised Version: CAHV-28. The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context. 2020;12(2):61-8. doi: 10.5093/ejpalc2020a8.
https://doi.org/10.5093/ejpalc2020a8... .

Scientific literature describes that ATV are related to the perception towards the EI, having a history of victimization ¹⁷17. Ramsay D, Steeves M, Feng C, Farag M. Protective and Risk Factors Associated With Youth Attitudes Toward Violence in Canada. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2017;1(25):1-25. doi: 10.1177/0886260517736275.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517736275... , competitiveness and self-esteem ¹⁸18. Karayagiz G, Coskun S, Sarlak D. An Analysis of the Relationship Between High School Students' Tendency Toward Violence, Self-Esteem, and Competitive Attitude. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2017;1(21):1-21. doi: 10.1177/0886260517723742.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517723742... . Other studies conducted in Spain ¹⁹19. Jiménez JA, Ruiz JA, Velandrino AP, Llor L. Actitudes hacia la violencia, impulsividad, estilos parentales y conducta externalizada en adolescentes: comparación entre una muestra de población general y una muestra clínica. Anales de Psicología. 2016;32(1):132-8., Turkey ²⁰20. Altin M, Demir H, Demirel H, Yalçin YG, Bugdayci S. High school students' violence tendencies. European Journal of Education Studies. 2017;3(8):424-35. doi: 10.46827/ejes.v0i0.933.
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.933... , and the United States ²¹21. Davidson MM, Canivez GL. Attitudes Toward Violence Scale: Psychometric Properties With a High School Sample. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2012;27(18):3660-82. doi: 10.1177/0886260512447578.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512447578... reported contradictory results regarding the association between ATV with sex and the year of study of adolescents. We have not found Peruvian studies that explore the factors associated with ATV, despite the need for this information, for a better understanding and analysis of the social phenomenon. From this perspective, the aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with ATV in children from public schools located in marginal urban areas of Metropolitan Lima in 2019.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Population and sample

An observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted to identify factors associated with ATV in regular basic education school children from primary and secondary schools.

The study population consisted of children enrolled at public schools in 2019 and who attended classes between August and December of the same year. The study was carried out in the marginal urban areas of eight districts of Metropolitan Lima, where twelve public schools were identified. These schools were co-educational (male and female students), had a student population of between 750 and 1,500 students per year (flagship schools) and provided primary and secondary education.

In the first stage of sampling, the selection of EIs was non-probability; the second stage was census-type for each EI, that is, all children from sixth grade in primary school to third grade of secondary school, who met the eligibility criteria, were included. The inclusion criteria were to be a schoolchild between 11 and 16 with regular school attendance, who has given informed consent and whose parents agreed to sign the informed consent. The exclusion criteria were to have a physical or mental disability that makes it difficult to complete the questionnaire.

Procedure

We invited the 12 EIs that met the inclusion criteria and scheduled the data collection day with each director of the EIs that agreed to participate. One day before data collection, parents were asked to sign the informed consent, and before the implementation of the survey, students signed the informed consent. In addition, students were reminded of the importance of their collaboration through honest and truthful responses regarding their opinion about EI. Then, the questionnaire was given to each student to complete individually in the classroom. This instrument was anonymous in order to reduce any possibility of responses motivated by social desirability.

Instrument

We used a self-administered survey with questions about the independent variables and the attitudes towards violence questionnaire (CAHV-25) that was initially developed and validated in Spain ¹⁵15. Ruiz JA, Llor L, Puebla T, Llor B. Evaluación de las creencias actitudinales hacia la violencia en centros educativos: el CAHV-25. European Journal of Education and Psychology. 2009;2(1):25-35. and then used in Mexico without any modification ¹²12. Orosco AE, Mercado M del R. Actitudes hacia la violencia y creencias culturales en adolescentes involucrados en violencia escolar. Anuario de Psicología. 2019;49(2):94-103. doi: 10.1344/anpsic2019.49.10.
https://doi.org/10.1344/anpsic2019.49.10... .

It should be noted that the author of the CAHV-25 reformulated two questions of the questionnaire and added three more. The updated version (CAHV-28) was published in 2020¹⁶16. Ruiz JA, Pina D, Puente E, Luna A, Llor B. Attitudes towards School Violence Questionnaire, Revised Version: CAHV-28. The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context. 2020;12(2):61-8. doi: 10.5093/ejpalc2020a8.
https://doi.org/10.5093/ejpalc2020a8... .

The questionnaire was validated by experts (psychologists, health professionals and teachers), who reviewed the clarity, consistency, relevance, and sufficiency of the instrument. A pilot was carried out with 25 students of an EI from an area close to the study’s setting in order to evaluate the feasibility of the application, the duration of the survey, and comprehension by the adolescents. No difficulties in understanding were found and the estimated time of the survey was 20 minutes.

We also carried out a reliability analysis of the internal consistency of the CAHV-25 items through a Cronbach’s alpha test; the general coefficient (0.890) and by gender (men: 0.904 and women: 0.868) were obtained.

Study variables

The independent variables of the study were age, sex, level of education, number of siblings, type of family relationship (living with father/mother/father and mother, or not living with parents), having a social network account (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and having received at least one counseling session or having participated in at least one training session on bullying, either in the EI or in a health facility.

The ATV score and its domains were considered as dependent variables and were measured using the CAHV-25 scale, which is composed by 25 items in the Likert format with five-alternative answers ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. This instrument assigns scores ranging from 1 to 5 (where the statements express dispositions toward violence) except for items 6 and 24, where the score is assigned inversely (from 5 to 1). Consequently, we calculated the sum of the scores of each of the domains and the total score of the scale, the results obtained meet the following criterion: the higher the score, the higher the ATV. It should be noted that this questionnaire has four domains: “violence as a form of entertainment”, with a total score of 35 (seven items); “violence to improve self-esteem”, with a total score of 25 (five items); “violence to manage problems and social relations”, with a total score of 30 (six items); and “violence perceived as legitimate”, with a total score of 35 (seven items). The total score for the entire scale is 125.

Statistical analysis

Quantitative variables were described by using mean, standard deviation, median and interquartile range; qualitative variables were expressed in frequencies and proportions.

In addition, we carried out a bivariate analysis between the socio-demographic characteristics and the score of the ATV scale and its domains by applying the Spearman correlation test, the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test with Dunn’s post hoc, adjusted by Bonferroni’s method.

To determine the factors associated with the ATV scale score and its domains, a multivariate analysis was carried out and since the assumption of equidispersion was not fulfilled, negative binomial regression was applied (crude and adjusted model). The total score of the ATV scale and its domains were considered as dependent variables (in 5 independent models). The absence of collinearity was verified by applying the variance inflation factor test and in each adjusted model all the independent variables were included with a p < 0.200 reported in the crude model. For all estimates, the Stata v16.0 statistical package (Stata Corporation, College Station, Texas, USA) was used, as well as a level of significance of p < 0.05.

Ethical aspects

The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad María Auxiliadora and was registered in the Act No. 01.

RESULTS

In Figure 1, the selection process of the study participants is shown. Initially, twelve EIs were invited, but only ten accepted. So, the study started with 702 schoolchildren from those ten EIs, and then we observed an acceptance rate of 91.5%, which resulted in 643 students.

The average age of the students was 12.8 years (standard deviation [SD ]: 1.3) and the average number of siblings was 2.5 (SD: 1.8); in addition, the highest percentage of school children were in the sixth grade of primary school, lived with both parents, and received counseling on bullying (Table 1).

Attitudes towards violence

The highest scores for violence were observed in the domain of “violence perceived as legitimate” with a median of 17 (interquartile range [IQR ]: 15-20), while the lowest was in the domain of “violence to improve self-esteem” with a median of 8 (IQR: 6-10) (Table 2).

During the bivariate analysis, we observed that the higher scores in the domains of “violence as a form of entertainment”, “violence perceived as legitimate”, and the total score of the ATV scale were associated with older age, being male, having a social network account, and higher levels of education (Table 3). In addition, the same table shows that higher scores in the domains of “violence to improve self-esteem” and “violence to manage problems and social relations” were only associated with being male and higher levels of education.

Regarding the multivariate analysis without an adjustment for the scores of the ATV scale and its domains in school children, we found significant association between the score of the domain “violence as a form of entertainment and age”, sex, having a social network account and level of education; scores for the domains “violence to improve self-esteem” and “violence to manage problems and social relations” were significantly associated with sex and level of education, while scores for the domain “violence perceived as legitimate” and the total ATV scale score were significantly associated with age, sex, and level of education (Table 4).

Table 5 shows the results of the multivariate analysis and we can observe that sex was an associated factor for all domains including the total score of the ATV scale (p < 0.001), showing that being male increased the total score by 0.12. In the domain of “violence as a form of entertainment”, it was found that attending the third year of secondary school increased the score by 0.17 (p = 0.006). In addition, age showed a significant association with the domain of “violence perceived as legitimate” and the total score of the ATV scale, showing that for each year the score increased by 0.02 in both cases (p = 0.007 and p = 0.012, respectively).

DISCUSSION

Our study, carried out in school children of ten public EIs in marginal-urban areas of Metropolitan Lima, determined that sex is associated with all four domains and with the total score of the ATV scale, and that age is associated with one domain and with the total score of the ATV scale. This finding indicates that during the gender identity development and the socialization process, changes in the ATV could be taking place in the educational environment. Furthermore, considering that attitudes are dispositions to act in a certain way and from a gender perspective, it could be said that differences in the predisposition towards violence are derived from the different behaviors between men and women ²²22. Ferrer Pérez VA, Bosch-Fiol E. El Género en el Análisis de la Violencia contra las Mujeres en la Pareja: de la "Ceguera" de Género a la Investigación Específica del Mismo. Anuario de Psicología Jurídica. 2019;29(1):69-76. doi: 10.5093/apj2019a3.
https://doi.org/10.5093/apj2019a3... .

In accordance with our results, several studies reported the association between sex with ATV and its domains ¹⁵15. Ruiz JA, Llor L, Puebla T, Llor B. Evaluación de las creencias actitudinales hacia la violencia en centros educativos: el CAHV-25. European Journal of Education and Psychology. 2009;2(1):25-35.^,1616. Ruiz JA, Pina D, Puente E, Luna A, Llor B. Attitudes towards School Violence Questionnaire, Revised Version: CAHV-28. The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context. 2020;12(2):61-8. doi: 10.5093/ejpalc2020a8.
https://doi.org/10.5093/ejpalc2020a8... ^,2323. Solar Armas MA, Gutiérrez Crespo HF, Ruiz Arias RA. Factores asociados a la presencia de bullying en estudiantes de educación secundaria de un colegio estatal en el distrito el Porvenir, Perú. Revista Internacional de Salud Materno Fetal. 2019;4(1):10-21.. Another author also reported the association between sex and ATV and included subscales that assessed attitudes toward gratuitous violence, violence linked to self-protection, and general violence ²⁴24. Menéndez JI, Fernández Río J. Actitudes hacia la violencia y papel importante del alumnado en el aula de educación física. Revista Complutense de Educación. 2018;29(4):1293-1308. doi: 10.5209/RCED.55352.
https://doi.org/10.5209/RCED.55352... ; in addition, other studies reported association of attitudes toward violence with gender ¹⁸18. Karayagiz G, Coskun S, Sarlak D. An Analysis of the Relationship Between High School Students' Tendency Toward Violence, Self-Esteem, and Competitive Attitude. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2017;1(21):1-21. doi: 10.1177/0886260517723742.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517723742... ^,2020. Altin M, Demir H, Demirel H, Yalçin YG, Bugdayci S. High school students' violence tendencies. European Journal of Education Studies. 2017;3(8):424-35. doi: 10.46827/ejes.v0i0.933.
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.933... . In contrast, a research involving adolescents with externalizing behavior disorder reported that there was no association between the dimensions of ATV and gender ¹⁹19. Jiménez JA, Ruiz JA, Velandrino AP, Llor L. Actitudes hacia la violencia, impulsividad, estilos parentales y conducta externalizada en adolescentes: comparación entre una muestra de población general y una muestra clínica. Anales de Psicología. 2016;32(1):132-8.. Another study about validation of a scale comprising interpersonal ATV against their peers and other aspects such as corporal punishment, crime and war, reported that there is no association with sex; however, they point out that boys show higher scores compared to girls ²¹21. Davidson MM, Canivez GL. Attitudes Toward Violence Scale: Psychometric Properties With a High School Sample. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2012;27(18):3660-82. doi: 10.1177/0886260512447578.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512447578... .

It is necessary to point out that the gender variable could partly reflect the historical inequalities and discriminations resulting from power relationships built in the different social spheres starting from the family itself, which represents a structural factor ²⁵25. Scott JW. El género: una categoría útil para el análisis histórico. En: Historia y género: las mujeres en la Europa moderna y contemporánea [Internet]. 1990 [citado el 8 de junio de 2020]. Disponible en: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2226823.
https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/arti... . These findings and the reports of other researchers indicate that sex is a factor associated with ATV, which shows that males are more predisposed to violence than females, especially when scales are used that mainly evaluate interpersonal relationships with their peers.

Another important finding was the weak but statistically significant positive correlation between age and both, the domain “violence perceived as legitimate” and the total ATV scale score. This result is similar to that reported by research in Colombia, which indicated that younger school children (9 to 11 years old) have lower scores on the ATV domains, especially in D1 and D4, compared to older school children (15 to 17 years old) ⁴4. Erazo Santander OA. Descripción, tipología e intencionalidad de la intimidación escolar en estudiantes de sexto a octavo de bachillerato. Psicogente. 2018;21(40):106-23. doi: 10.17081/psico.21.40.3078.
https://doi.org/10.17081/psico.21.40.307... . In another study of secondary school children in Turkey, age was reported to influence trends in violence ¹⁸18. Karayagiz G, Coskun S, Sarlak D. An Analysis of the Relationship Between High School Students' Tendency Toward Violence, Self-Esteem, and Competitive Attitude. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2017;1(21):1-21. doi: 10.1177/0886260517723742.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517723742... . Other authors also report the association between age and bullying ²³23. Solar Armas MA, Gutiérrez Crespo HF, Ruiz Arias RA. Factores asociados a la presencia de bullying en estudiantes de educación secundaria de un colegio estatal en el distrito el Porvenir, Perú. Revista Internacional de Salud Materno Fetal. 2019;4(1):10-21.. These studies confirm that age is a factor associated with ATV.

In this research, we determined that there are differences between the scores of the ATV according to year of studies for only one domain; however, this variable was not a factor associated with ATV. This result is similar to what was reported by studies carried out in Spain, however, these did not evaluate the effect of collinearity ¹⁵15. Ruiz JA, Llor L, Puebla T, Llor B. Evaluación de las creencias actitudinales hacia la violencia en centros educativos: el CAHV-25. European Journal of Education and Psychology. 2009;2(1):25-35.^,1616. Ruiz JA, Pina D, Puente E, Luna A, Llor B. Attitudes towards School Violence Questionnaire, Revised Version: CAHV-28. The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context. 2020;12(2):61-8. doi: 10.5093/ejpalc2020a8.
https://doi.org/10.5093/ejpalc2020a8... . In this regard, a study conducted in a Peruvian region reported that adolescents in the third year of secondary school are 2.2 times more likely to be involved in bullying ²³23. Solar Armas MA, Gutiérrez Crespo HF, Ruiz Arias RA. Factores asociados a la presencia de bullying en estudiantes de educación secundaria de un colegio estatal en el distrito el Porvenir, Perú. Revista Internacional de Salud Materno Fetal. 2019;4(1):10-21.. This last point leads us, from an evolutionary perspective, to point out that regarding violence, both attitude and behavior reach their highest point in the upper years in the form of progressive increase.

Unlike other scales, the CAHV-25 only considers aspects related to peer violence in students from primary and secondary school, and, in addition, presents high statistical reliability in its four domains or subscales. Subsequently, Tejedo et al. ²⁶26. Tejero González C. Tolerancia y Adolescencia. Edad, género y nacionalidad: análisis comparativo. Al Sur Revista de Investigación y Experiencias Educativas. 2004;4:72-6. validated the ATV scale, which is used mainly in physical education students. In 2020, Bonilla et al. ²⁷27. Bonilla C, Rosario FJ, Rivera O, Muñoz H, Rivera IC. Construcción de una escala de actitud hacia la violencia escolar en adolescentes del Callao, Perú. Revista de Difusión cultural y científica de la Universidad La Salle en Bolivia. 2020;19:49-76.⁾ published the validation of a school-based ATV scale (AVE-E) for the secondary level education in Peru, in which they not only evaluate attitudes and emotional responses to violence, but also the perception of violent behavior and social comparison.

Among the possible limitations, the potential for inference of our findings is diminished by the choice of intentional non-probabilistic sampling. However, our initial purpose was to generate systematic knowledge for the empirical-theoretical research instead of approaching it from a prevalence and incidence viewpoint. In addition, we considered mixed EIs with similar characteristics in terms of number of students enrolled and sections per year. On the other hand, we minimized biases and social desirability because data collection guaranteed the anonymity of the informant. Similarly, and thanks to the training of the instrument’s applicators, standard conditions were guaranteed in all cases.

In conclusion, we found that for adolescents from public EIs in urban-marginal areas of Lima, sex was a factor associated with ATV and all domains, while age was a factor associated with ATV and only one domain. In this scenario, adolescent boys have more prone attitudes towards violence compared to adolescent girls and there is a weak positive correlation between age and ATV scores. In addition, there are differences in ATV by level of education. The highest scores were found in the domain of “violence perceived as legitimate”.

These findings represent relevant information to suggest that the analysis of school violence should take gender and age into account. Likewise, the emphasis on the gender variable and its relevance can serve as support for the development of predictive models for aggressive behavior ²⁸28. Domínguez J, López A, Nieto B. Violencia escolar: diferencias de género en estudiantes de secundaria. Revista Complutense de Educación. 2019;30(4):1031-44. doi: 10.5209/rced.59997.
https://doi.org/10.5209/rced.59997... . Finally, to implement effective interventions aimed at reducing ATV and its evident manifestations in adolescents, the gender approach must be considered, taking into account that attitudes predispose to action (observable behaviors).

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