Assessing bullying, being bullied, and self-concept : a psychometric evaluation of the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument and Self-Description Questionnaire II for upper primary aged children

Research on school bullying tends to focus on single-item item rather than scale-based questionnaires, the former of which do not take into consideration the different types of bullying which can take place. The aim of the present investigation is to examine the multi-dimensional and hierarchical structure of the Adolescent Peer Relations Questionnaire (APRI) and the multi-dimensional structure of the Self Description Questionnaire II (SDQII) for upper primary aged children. A total of 175 students from years 5 and 6 from one primary school in the Western Sydney Region completed the questionnaire. The study critically analysed the 11 first-order multidimensional factors of the SDQII. The APRI measures three types of bullying and victimisation" Physical, Verbal, and Social, and is comprised of approximately six items for each factor. This study analyses the ability of these three types of bullying and victimisation to define two global second-order factors" Global Bullying, and Global Victimisation. Results from the first/ second-order Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) showed satisfactory results for both instruments. While the SDQII met satisfactory analytical requirements within this study, a modified version of the SDQI (for primary aged children), with the addition of SDQII constructs of interest (i.e. Same/ Opposite Sex Relations), may be more relevant for the examination of self-concept within upper primary aged children, yet the APRI was deemed appropriate for use within the upper primary school years.