Validation of a Brief Self-Report Measure of Adolescent Bullying Perpetration and Victimization

Abstract

Although a wide range of measures of bullying have been developed, there remains a need for brief psychometrically supported measures for use in contexts in which there are constraints on the number of items that can be administered. We thus evaluated the reliability and validity of scores from a 10-item self-report measure of bullying victimization and perpetration in adolescents: the Zurich Brief Bullying Scales. The measure covers social exclusion, property destruction, verbal and physical aggression, and sexual bullying in both traditional and cyber forms. We evaluated factorial validity, internal consistency, developmental invariance, gender invariance, and convergent and divergent validity of the measure. Our sample was the normative longitudinal Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso) sample ( N = 1,304). The study involved the administration of Zurich Brief Bullying Scales to participants aged 11, 13, 15, and 17 years. Strengths and weaknesses of the measure and recommendations for utilizing and improving the measure were identified. Overall, results suggest that the items provide a reasonable general but brief measure of bullying victimization and perpetration that can be used across early to late adolescence and in both males and females.

Developmental relations between ADHD symptoms and bullying perpetration and victimization in adolescence

“…Item N s ranged from 1299 (age 17) to 1444 (age 15). Previous analyses have supported the validity of the measure in the current sample (Murray, Eisner, et al, 2019). Omega values for the scale in the current study were 0.77 for age 13, 0.71 for age 15, and 0.71 for age 17 victimization and 0.78 for age 13, 0.76 for age 15, and 0.71 for age 17 perpetration, supporting its reliability in the sample.…”

“…Bullying victimization and perpetration were measured in parallel form using the Zurich Brief Bullying Scales (ZBBS; Murray, Eisner, et al, 2019). The ZBBS covers four major manifestations of bullying: physical aggression, verbal aggression, social aggression, and property destruction.…”

A multi-trajectory analysis of commonly co-occurring mental health issues across childhood and adolescence

“…Our group-based trajectory modelling approach provides complementary evidence to alternative approaches to modelling the development of co-occurring mental health issues. Previous work in this and other samples have, for example, examined the extent and longitudinal evolution of 'general comorbidity' sometimes also referred to as the 'p-factor', finding that there is considerable co-occurrence between symptoms in different domains across childhood and adolescent development [10,24,25]. Our finding here that most individuals who are affected by elevated symptoms fall into trajectory groups characterised by symptoms in multiple domains is thus consistent with this previous work but also helps to identify the specific developmental course that the co-occurring symptoms take.…”

“…Bullying victimisation at age 11 was measured using the self-reported 4-item Zurich Brief Bullying Scales (ZBBS; [25]). The ZBBS as was administered at the age 11 wave of z-proso includes four victimisation items referring to being purposely ignored or excluded; laughed at, mocked or insulted; hit, bitten, kicked or having hair pulled; and having possessions stolen, broken or hidden.…”

“…Missing data were dealt with using multivariate imputation with chained equations, using the mice package in R [9]. The imputation model included all of the previously described covariates, variables previously identified as predictors of attrition in this sample [13], ADHD, externalising, and internalising, and several putative outcome variables discussed in a related paper (delinquency, social exclusion, optimism, intimate partner violence perpetration and victimisation; [25]). We used three imputed datasets, with results pooled using Rubin's rules [43].…”