[Children's and adolescents' experiences of violence based on subjective self-reporting. First results of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS)].

Experiences of violence in childhood and adolescence are connected with potentially serious consequences for physical and psychological health. Children and adolescents can experience violence as the perpetrator, the victim or the perpetrator/victim. As part of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) 3382 boys and 3237 girls answered questions on the prevalence of experiences of violence over 12 months, divided into experiences as a perpetrator and as a victim. There were also questions on people's views on the propensity to instrumental and expressive violence. Altogether, 82.5% of girls (G) and 67.2% of boys (B) had not been involved in an act of violence in the last 12 months. 19.6% (B) and 9.9% (G) had been perpetrators; 5.2% (B) and 3.9% (G) had been victims and 7.6% (B) and 3.6% (G) had been perpetrators/victims of an act of violence. The amount of violence suffered by respondents with a high socioeconomic status (SES) was the lowest, with 81.0% never having been involved in acts of violence, compared with those with a lower SES (68.3%) and a medium SES (76.4%). Pupils at Hauptschule (school at lower secondary level providing a basic general education) and Gesamtschule (comprehensive school) as well as adolescents with a migrant background are more often affected by experiences of violence and have more permissive attitudes towards violence than those at Gymnasium (high school) or Realschule (school at lower secondary level providing more extensive general education) and children of non-migrants. Social disadvantage and a migrant background are associated with adolescents having more exposure to and a higher propensity for violence. Intervention programmes and improvements to basic social conditions may have a preventative effect. As no distinction can be made between familial violence and other forms of violence using the KiGGS data, care should be taken in interpreting it. Its significance lies in identifying risk groups.