[Victims of violence in urban secondary schools in Sousse (Tunisia)]

Most often epidemiologic studies of violence during adolescence focus on aspects related to the perpetrator. The adolescent victims of violence are certainly at least as numerous, but too little is known about them. Our aim was to estimate the extent of this social phenomenon and to identify its various forms, through a descriptive, cross-sectional study of a sample of 685 teenagers (409 girls and 276 boys) from six public high schools in Sousse in 1999. A school physician conducted structured interviews to collect the data, recorded in compliance with the ethical rules of confidentiality and anonymity. The results indicate that 36.9% of the adolescents (54% of the boys and 24% of the girls) reported experiencing violence. Within the group of victims, physical violence was reported by 78% of the boys and 63% of the girls, verbal violence by 51% and 63%, respectively. We conclude that experiencing violence is far from uncommon and that it causes acute suffering for youngsters during an important phase of their emotional development and exposes them to the risk of becoming violent as adults. School medical staff can play a crucial role in the prevention and the management of this mistreatment.