Assessment of Knowledge, Perception and Prevalence of Bullying Practices among Medical Students of Quetta

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the knowledge, perception, and prevalence of bullying among the medical students of Quetta.

Methods: This study was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study which was conducted on medical students of 1st through the 5th year from Bolan Medical College and Quetta Institute of Medical Sciences, Quetta. Total 364 students took part in the study. The data was analyzed on SPSS version 20. The questionnaire included separate sections to assess knowledge, perception and prevalence of bullying among the students.

Results: Majority of students had adequate knowledge about bullying, however, 34.9% of medical students were found to be bullied which is a very high percentage. Most of the bullied students were male and most were from 5th year. Moreover, most of the participants who were bullied had felt depressed after being bullied and the majority of them did not make any complaint to their institute’s authorities. Considering perception, maximum students had a negative perception about bullying.

Conclusion: Such high rates of bullying among medical students indicate the need for the institutions to have a strong policy against bullying with proper monitoring. Moreover, there should be student psychiatric councilors inside the campus to provide counseling to students who are going through mental disturbances because of victimization. There is also a need for raising or spreading awareness among students, so they perceive and deal with bullying in a better way. Alongside, mental health issues related to bullying must be brought to discussions more frequently.