Who are we to believe – the child, teacher, or parent?Reports on victimization from different informants, and associations with children’s health complaints

Background: Concordance in the reporting of children’s health is low to moderate, but evidence related to the consistency of reporting victimization among school children is scarce. Victims of bullying in school experience later health problems, and we therefore assessed concordance in reporting victimization between teacher, parent and children. We also assessed and compared the prevalence of health complaints related to reporting of victimization. Material and methods: In a cross-sectional study of 419 children in grades 1-10 frequency of victimization was reported by children, teachers and parents, and frequency of health complaints (anxiety, sadness, headache, stomach ache) was reported by the children. Concordance between informants was analysed by cross-tables and Spearman’s rho and associations of victimization with health complaints were estimated by logistic regression. Results: Among children who reported regular victimization, less than half of these cases were confirmed by teachers or parents, and conversely, among children who were reported to be victimized by the adults less than half of the children confirmed victimization. In relation to self-reported victimization among children, there was a strong dose-related effect with self-reported anxiety, sadness, stomach ache and headache. The associations of victimization reported by teachers or parents were generally weaker than the associations of self-reported victimization. Conclusion: There is low to moderate agreement between children and significant adults in reporting peer victimization, and associations with health complaints will therefore vary, depending on the source of reported victimization.