OBJECTIVES: To describe age and gender specific time trends in adolescent violence across 19 countries over 28 years. METHODS: The paper presents analysis of eight cycles of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study from 1994-2022, involving 789,531 children aged 11, 13, and 15. Indicators of violence included physical fighting, school bullying and cyberbullying (from 2018). Log-binomial regression models were used to test for linear temporal trends, with Generalized Estimating Equations used to account for clustering by country. RESULTS: School bullying perpetration and victimization declined over time in each age/gender group in most countries. Similar declines were reported for frequent physical fighting among boys (all ages) and girls (age 15 only). The prevalence of violent behaviour was almost universally higher in boys in the early cycles than in girls, but this gender difference attenuated over time. For cyberbullying, significant increases were observed since 2018 in all groups except age 15 girls in most countries. CONCLUSION: This analysis of a large cross-national dataset suggests a decline in traditional forms of adolescent violence. However, the increases in cyberbullying warrant further monitoring.

CHILD School of Learning and Communication Jönköping University Jönköping Sweden

Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto Toronto ON Canada

Department of Criminology Bar Ilan University Ramat Gan Israel

Department of Environmental Health Faculty of Health Sciences Jagiellonian University Medical College Krakow Poland

Department of Health Sciences Brock University St Catharines ON Canada

Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences Physical Activity for Health Research Centre University of Limerick Limerick Ireland

Department of Psychology McGill University Montreal QC Canada

Department of Psychology Queen's University Kingston ON Canada

Department of Public Health Sciences Queen's University Kingston ON Canada

Department of Social Work University of Gothenburg Göteborg Sweden

Faculty of Education University of Turku Turku Finland

Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä Finland

Institute of Innovation and Sports Science Lithuanian Sports University Kaunas Lithuania

Medical School University of St Andrews St Andrews Scotland United Kingdom

Olomouc University Social Health Institute Palacky University Olomouc Olomouc Czechia

School of Education University of Galway Galway Ireland

Trinity Centre for Global Health School of Psychology Trinity College Dublin Dublin Ireland

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