Development of a Measure of the Experience of Being Bullied in Youth

• Published in: Psychological assessment 2012-03, Vol.24 (1), p.156-165
• Main Authors: Hunt, Caroline, Peters, Lorna, Rapee, Ronald M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Alcohol Drinking; Anxiety; Australia; Biological and medical sciences; Bullying; Bullying - psychology; Check Lists; Checklist; Checklist (Testing); Child; Child Behavior - psychology; Correlation; Crime Victims - psychology; Depression (Psychology); Discriminant analysis; Evidence; Factor Analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Foreign Countries; Human; Humans; Internet; Interpersonal Relations; Life Change Events; Male; Measurement; Measures (Individuals); Medical sciences; Mental depression; Peer Group; Peers; Psychological Tests - standards; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reproducibility of Results; Schools; Self Esteem; Self Report - standards; Stress, Psychological - diagnosis; Students - psychology; Techniques and methods; Test Construction; Test Reliability; Test Validity; Validity; Verbal Communication; Victimization; Victims
• ISSN: 1040-3590; 1939-134X
• DOI: 10.1037/a0025178

The Personal Experiences Checklist (PECK) was developed to provide a multidimensional assessment of a young person's personal experience of being bullied that covered the full range of bullying behaviors, including covert relational forms of bullying and cyber bullying. A sample of 647 school children were used to develop the scale, and a 2nd sample of 218 children completed the PECK and a battery of measures of bullying (including peer nomination), anxiety, depression, and self-esteem, to provide validity evidence. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a further sample of 78 students. Four factors emerged from a principal axis factoring consistent with the domains of relational-verbal bullying, cyber bullying, physical bullying, and bullying based on culture and were confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis. The data also supported a higher order bullying factor with direct effects on these 4 factors. All PECK scales showed good to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α range = .78-.91) and adequate test-retest reliability (range r = .61-.86). Most, but not all, expected relations were found with alternative methods of assessing bullying and measures of psychopathology. Taken together, the PECK provides a promising comprehensive and behaviorally focused dimensional measure of bullying.