Using a Multiple Item Assessment to Understand the Social and Academic Impacts of Bullying

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
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Abstract

Despite a rich literature base, few measures use multiple items to assess cyber and traditional bullying simultaneously while also meeting standards of validity. These shortcomings cloud our understanding of the social and academic impacts of bullying. To address these concerns, this study evaluates the construct validity of a new measure of bullying. Both cyber and traditional bullying significantly correlated with negative social emotional functioning and harboring negative attitudes about school. However, bullying was not significantly related to externalizing behaviors or academic achievement. Implications of how the continued development of such measures can help schools accurately measure the prevalence of bullying and improve the effectiveness of intervention efforts are discussed.

Author

• Anthony Betancourt, University of Scranton