Development of the Cyberbullying Awareness Scale for adolescents: Validity and reliability study

Abstract

The present study aims to develop the Cyberbullying Awareness Scale (CAS) for adolescents, which assesses adolescents' awareness about cyberbullying, and to examine the psychometric properties of the scale by conducting validity and reliability studies. In this context, evidence on the validity and reliability of the scale was obtained in two separate studies. In Study 1 (N = 552), scale items were developed, content validity was examined, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to determine the factor structure of the scale. In addition, criterion‐related validity and reliability analyses were performed. The mean age of the participants in Study 1 was 14.6. In Study 2 (N = 338), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm the factorial structure obtained as a result of EFA. The mean age of the participants in Study 2 was 14.8. As a result of the research, it was determined that the CAS for adolescents had a three‐factor structure comprised of Cyberbullying Tendency, Coping with Cyberbullying and Protection from Cyberbullying. The internal consistency coefficients were calculated as 0.80 for the Cyberbullying Tendency sub‐dimension, 0.76 for the Coping with Cyberbullying sub‐dimension and 0.63 for the Protection from Cyberbullying sub‐dimension. In line with the obtained results, it can be said that the CAS for adolescents is a valid and reliable measurement tool for determining the awareness of adolescents in the 12–18 age group on cyberbullying.