Introduction:

Experiencing or being exposed to violence is called victimization; living it can generate repercussions on health, quality of life and life expectancy.

Objectives:

To describe victimization and identify factors related to polyvictimization (≥ 4 victimization incidents) in adolescents.

Methods:

After informed consent and assent were obtained, the ICAST-C and Youth Self-Report validated self-report questionnaires were applied in nine public secondary schools, by means of which demographic data, six forms of victimization and symptoms related to eight mental health problems were investigated. Frequencies of the forms of victimization and polyvictimization were obtained and an ordinal regression was carried out to identify variables related to polyvictimization.

Results:

The answers of 638 participants were included; 49.37% reported victimization throughout life, 53.37% before previous year and 68.86% during previous year; 47.65% reported polyvictimization, 21.75% before previous year and 17.53% during previous year. The factors related to polyvictimization were depression-introversion, attention deficit, rule-breaking behaviors, bullying and parental separation/divorce.

Conclusions:

Victimization and polyvictimization were frequent in this sample of adolescents; the factors that were related to polyvictimization included symptoms of mental health problems, bullying and parental divorce/separation.