Background: School bullying is described as violence to other people. It is perpetrated at schools or other activities when the power of a student or a group of students is used to injure others or other groups. Main body: The prevalence of school bullying is varied from one country to another. There are many types of bullying, such as physical, verbal, social relations, psychological, sexual, and cyber-bullying. Many risk factors could affect school bullying, especially individual, peer and parent factors. Researches found that adults who had school bullying are more vulnerable to develop future psychiatric disorders. Conclusions: School bullying is one of the crucial problems among pupils. The wide range of the prevalence of school bullying may be due to different methodologies and the presence of many risk factors. It is recommended to have long-term researches about the student with bullying behavior. Also, prevention programs are required to increase knowledge and early detection of affected students to prevent future psychiatric disorders.
16 August 2022 in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health
Background: Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is a serious condition that can significantly impact personal and social functioning. Many studies of IGA have been conducted in adolescents and young adults, but there are limited data available in children. We investigated the time spent using internet gaming apps in children and its association with behavioral problems, sleep problems, alexithymia, and emotional regulation. Methods: The research populations (N = 564) were categorized based on the number of hours spent using online gaming applications. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire Abbreviated, the Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM), and the Clinical Evaluation of Emotional Regulation–9 were used to assess all participants. Results: Compared to other groups, children who used internet gaming applications for more than 6 h had a higher proportion of abnormal responses on the emotional symptoms and hyperactivity scales. Children who used internet gaming applications for more than 6 h had the poorest sleep quality (75%), while children who used internet gaming applications for 1–2 h had the best (36.7%). Participants who used internet gaming apps for 1–2 h had significantly lower mean total scores on the emotional regulation scale and total CAM, whereas those using internet gaming apps for more than 6 h had the highest mean scores in the CAM. Conclusions: Excessive use of internet gaming apps during childhood may be associated with hyperactivity, peer problems, high socioeconomic level, alexithymia concerns, shorter daytime sleep duration, and a delayed morning wake-up.
Introduction: The global devastating effect of COVID-19 has caused anxiety and fear to variable extent among the public. We aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, socioeconomic burden, and the mental health problems regarding anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder during COVID-19 on the general population and HCWs in Egypt. Methods: This study was conducted using a semi-structured online questionnaire in May 2020. Data on demographic features, socioeconomic scale, knowledge, and attitude regarding COVID-19 and the effect on different aspects of life were collected. Assessment was done using Arabic versions of Beck’s Anxiety Inventory, Beck’s Depression Inventory–II, and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. We divided participants into non-health care workers (non-HCWs) and HCWs groups. Results: There were 524 participants who responded to the survey from 23 governorates. More than half of the participants were females (57.4%), middle age (53%), and middle socioeconomic class (66.6%). Non-HCWs were 402 and HCWs were 122. Most participants had good knowledge about the disease and a positive attitude toward protective measures particularly in HCWs. COVID-19 showed negative impact on different aspects of participants’ life. HCWs had higher frequency of anxiety (32%) and OCD (29%) than non-HCWs (30% and 28%, respectively) while non-HCWs had higher depression (69%) than HCWs (66.4%). HCWs had higher rates of severe depression (20.5%) with moderate and severe OCD (4.9%, 1.6% respectively) than non-HCWs. Female gender, young age, urban residence, students, smoking, history of medical illness, and low socioeconomic class were significant associated factors. Conclusions: Health care workers had good knowledge about COVID-19 and a positive attitude toward the protective measures relative to non-HCWs. COVID-19 had a negative impact on different aspects of life and had a major association with the anxiety, depression, and OCD in both groups. Health professionals are more likely to have these psychological consequences.