OBJECTIVETo study the incidence and risk factors of campus violence and to provide evidence for preventing campus violence among college students.

METHODS5300 college students in two universities in a province of China were selected to participate in the study and were interviewed with questionnaires. Logistic regression was used for data analysis.

RESULTS(1) In total, 3910 useable questionnaires were gathered to show a response rate of 73.77%. 17.98% of the college students reported they had ever experienced campus violence in the last one year. 29.60% of the male students experienced campus violence so as 7.27% of the female students. The incidence of violence among male students was significantly higher than those of female students (chi2 = 329.89, P = 0.000). (2) Among male students who were victims of campus violence, the incidence rates of threat or blackmail, emotional abuse, physical assault, verbal sexual harassment, sexual assault were 18.03%, 13.97%, 10.77%, 0.85%, 0.48% respectively. Among female students who were victims of campus violence, the incidence rates were 3.64%, 5.84%, 1.38%, 1.33%, 1.13% respectively. The main source of the violence was from their schoolmates. (3) 10.40% of the male students reported they were perpetrators of campus violence in the last year, while 1.47% of the female students reported so. Schoolmates were the main subjects of their aggressive behaviors. (4) Among the college students who were victims of campus violence, logistic regression analysis revealed that smoking, drinking alcohol, frequently getting computer online were important risk factors. The OR values were 1.48, 2.96, 1.66 respectively. Among college students who were perpetrators of campus violence, the OR values were 2.92, 1.88, 2.09 respectively.

CONCLUSIONCampus violence among college students was serious, suggesting that intervention measures should be taken.