Associação entre raça/cor e exposição à violência em adolescentes brasileiros estudantes do 9º ano do ensino fundamental residentes nas capitais e no distrito federal: Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar (PeNSE 2009-2019)

Abstract

Introduction: Violence is a multi-causal phenomenon, and adolescents constitute a priority group for the prevention of this condition. Racism, a form of violence, shapes social relations and, through them, imposes structural inequalities in Brazilian society. Objective: To analyze the association between race/color and the prevalence of violence exposure among Brazilian adolescent schoolchildren residing in capital cities and the Federal District, who were in the 9th grade of elementary school when they participated in the National School Health Survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar - PeNSE), conducted across four editions from 2009 to 2019. Methods: This is a temporal trend analysis based on repeated cross-sectional studies involving 132,915 adolescents attending the 9th grade of elementary school. For this analysis, secondary data from the four editions of the National School Health Survey (PeNSE), conducted in 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2019, were used. The exposure considered in the study was self-reported race/color, and the outcome was having missed classes due to feeling unsafe on the way home-school/school-home or at school in the last 30 days. The association between exposure and outcome was estimated using a multiple logistic regression model. All analyses were performed in R and accounted for sample weights and the design effect. Results: The sample was composed mostly of female school adolescents who reported living with both their father and mother, belonged to the 13–15 age group, and were enrolled in public schools. Across the editions, the proportion of students who self-identified as black and brown increased. The proportion of students who reported having missed classes because they felt unsafe on the route home-school/school-home or at school increased, with an average annual variation of 1.2% (CI95% = 1.1-1.4). The increase in the prevalence of exposure to violence occurred independently of the student's race/color, with a similar average annual growth across racial strata. The chance of students who self-declared as black and brown missing classes due to insecurity was greater than among students who self-declared as white in all years, with the exception of 2019. After adjustment, the association remained significant only among students who self-identified as black. In this stratum, the chance of exposure to violence showed an increasing trend until 2015, being 32% higher in that year when compared to the chance among students who self-declared as white. Similar patterns were found when the analyses were stratified by sex. Conclusion: Self-declared black and brown adolescents had a higher odds of missing classes due to insecurity in the commute (home-school and school-home) or at school. Racial discrimination plays a fundamental role in this association, given that the differences between self declared black and white students remained significant even after adjusting for potential confounding variables.