An evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument: Participant Roles (APRI:PR) across primary and secondary schools

The incidence of bullying in schools is influenced by both bullies and the responses of witnesses to bullying behaviours. Researchers have proposed that bystanders witnessing bullying incidents may respond in various ways. These include assisting the bullying by joining in or making suggestions as to whom to and how to bully; reinforcing the bullying by looking on or 'cheering' the bully; defending the target of the bully; or remaining outside the situation by not doing anything about it. Participant roles are likely to influence the course, development and severity of bullying behaviours at school and as such they have become the focus of study and intervention efforts. Although there are a number of suggested measurement instruments for measuring participant roles their psychometric properties are varied or have not been adequately evaluated. This paper outlines the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument: Participant Roles (APRI:PR). This instrument was developed for the specific purpose of measuring distinct reactions (Active Reinforcer, Passive Reinforcer, Target Advocate, and Disregard/Ignore) to observing a bullying incident. The APRI: Participant Roles offers a list of 24 reactions to the witnessing of a bullying situation. Students are asked to rate how true these reactions are to what they would do on a six-point Likert scale (1= False to 6 = True). Based on a sample of more than 4000 Year 5 to 11 school students from Sydney, Australia the results indicate that: for the total sample of students, internal consistency estimates were good to excellent; results of a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), testing a highly restrictive a priori four-factor structure, provided a good fit for the data; the factor loadings indicate that all four factors are well defined; and correlations among the factors provided support for the distinctive nature of each of the factors. Additional tests of factorial invariance between boys and girls provided support of a common four-factor model is present for both genders. The APRI:PR's brevity, and strong psychometric properties across a wide age range increase the availability of options for measuring participant roles in schools. The APRI:PR can contribute to intervention, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in bullying intervention and research.