Measures of aggression and victimization in portuguese adolescents: Cross-cultural validation of the Revised Peer Experience Questionnaire.

Abstract

The goal of this research was to develop and psychometrically evaluate the Portuguese version of the Revised Peer Experience Questionnaire, which assesses aggression, victimization and prosocial behavior. Victimization and aggression among adolescents in school settings is a growing problem, not yet fully understood or properly evaluated, particularly in Portugal. A sample of 1320 adolescents was recruited (52.7% female), with ages varying from 10 to 18 years old, attending middle and high school. Confirmatory factor analysis confirms the measurement model of the instrument's bully and victim versions, as evaluating overt, relational and reputational aggression/ victimization and providing/ receiving prosocial behavior, respectively. This measurement model was invariant across schooling and gender, showed adequate internal consistency indicators, and presented evidence for construct validity in relation to other variables. Descriptive analyses indicate that boys are more aggressive in overt and relational forms and victimized through overt aggression, whereas girls are more aggressive and victimized relationally. More than any form of aggression or victimization, boys and girls revealed higher values for engaging in and receiving prosocial behavior. These results suggest that this instrument is a reliable, valid, and structurally sound measure of aggression, victimization and prosocial behavior in this Portuguese school-based community sample. Hence, its use may assist researchers gain a better understanding of adolescent aggression and victimization.

The Impact of Adolescents’ Attachment to Peers and Parents on Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

“…So, though individual gender-based models might have appeared if considering boys and girls separately, we expect a non-genderspecific model to prove more useful and informative, given that explanatory (e.g., Dodge and Rabiner, 2004) and intervention models (e.g., Boxer and Dubow, 2002) on aggression do not differentiate by gender. Mean level gender differences further concur to our instruments having evaluated their intended constructs, in as much as they align with previous literature: girls scored higher on peer attachment (Gullone and Robinson, 2005), practiced more prosocial behaviors (Stubbs-Richardson et al, 2018), and practiced less overt aggressive behavior than boys (Card et al, 2008;Inchley et al, 2020); girls also practiced less relational and reputational aggression, which may be a cultural specific finding that replicates previous ones with similar samples (Queirós and Vagos, 2016). These mean level differences may be pointing to a social profile, where one (particularly girls) is better attached (principally to peers) and practices less aggressive and more prosocial behavior.…”

“…It refers to how often adolescents engaged in an aggressive (overt, relational, and reputational) or prosocial behavior toward others in the past year, using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (a few times a week). The four-factor measurement model assumed for this measure has been replicated via exploratory (De Los Reyes and Prinstein, 2004) and confirmatory factor analyses, and found to be invariant across gender and schooling (i.e., participants attending middle or high school; Queirós and Vagos, 2016). Acceptable internal consistency values have been found for all bully measures, ranging from 0.68 to 0.91 (De Los Reyes and Prinstein, 2004;Queirós and Vagos, 2016).…”

“…The four-factor measurement model assumed for this measure has been replicated via exploratory (De Los Reyes and Prinstein, 2004) and confirmatory factor analyses, and found to be invariant across gender and schooling (i.e., participants attending middle or high school; Queirós and Vagos, 2016). Acceptable internal consistency values have been found for all bully measures, ranging from 0.68 to 0.91 (De Los Reyes and Prinstein, 2004;Queirós and Vagos, 2016). Evidence was also found in favor of the construct validity of these measures (Queirós and Vagos, 2016).…”

“…Acceptable internal consistency values have been found for all bully measures, ranging from 0.68 to 0.91 (De Los Reyes and Prinstein, 2004;Queirós and Vagos, 2016). Evidence was also found in favor of the construct validity of these measures (Queirós and Vagos, 2016). Using the current sample, the fourfactor measurement model was confirmed ( Table 1) and found to be invariant by gender at time 1 (metric invariance, after allowing the loading of item 13 to vary between boys and girls: CRI = −0.006, RMSEA = 0.000, and SRMR = 0.01; scalar invariance: CFI = −0.01, RMSEA = 0.002, and SRMR = 0.003) and time 2 (metric invariance: CFI = 0.002, RMSEA = −0.003, and SRMR = 0.013; scalar invariance: CFI = −0.004, RMSEA = −0.001, and SRMR = 0.002).…”

“…Such acts hold the intention of causing damage to a victim and may be in the form of overt aggression (e.g., hitting, teasing, or kicking), relational aggression, which uses relationships as weapons by manipulating between-peer relationships (e.g., excluding someone from social activities), or reputational aggression, as a way of using others to damage the victim's social reputation within the group hierarchy (e.g., telling others to dislike someone, spreading gossips or rumors; Card et al, 2008;Heilbron and Prinstein, 2008). Boys have been found across countries to practice more overt forms of aggression (Card et al, 2008;Smith et al, 2018;Inchley et al, 2020); findings on the indirect forms of aggression (e.g., relational and reputational aggression) have not been constant and may be country/culture dependent: Card et al (2008); Inchley et al (2020), and Smith et al (2018) reported no meaningful gender differences across combined samples from several countries, whereas Queirós and Vagos (2016) report higher practice of relational aggression by Portuguese adolescent boys. In turn, prosocial behaviors, which have been found to be more often practiced by girls (Queirós and Vagos, 2016), are an alternative to aggression that allow mending harmed relationship (Stubbs-Richardson et al, 2018), and consist of positive and voluntary actions that intend to help, share or comfort others, thus providing for the well-being of everyone involved (Dunfield, 2014).…”