Kate MacDonald EDPS 616: Assessment

Reynolds

Bully Victimization Scales for Schools (RBVSS)

Bully Victimization Scale (BVS) Bully Victimization Distress Scale (BVDS) School Violence Anxiety Scale (SVAS)

the use of physical, psychological, or direct verbal means either individually or in a group, to cause physical or psychological distress to others
(Reynolds, 2003, p. 4 as cited in Saylor & Leach, 2009, p. 70) (Pearson Assessment, n.d.)

 Developed

by Dr. William Reynolds Key questions:

How safe are schools? How prevalent are bullying behaviours? How distressed are children who are victimized by

bullies? Does this distress become internalized or externalized? How can we identify those who are bullied and/or those who are engaged in bullying?
(Pearson Clinical, n.d.)

 Contains

46 items and two sub-scales

Addresses behaviours such as throwing objects,

hitting and fighting, being with a group that assaults others, stealing, name calling, teasing, and verbal threats
Likert-type

scale, using anchors of 0 never occurring to 3- occurring five or more times per month Will get a score for each subscale, not a total score
(Educational Testing Services, n.d.; Pearson Assessment, n.d.)

 Published

2003 by Pearson Assessment

A-level test Administered to children/adolescents from Grades

3-12, using a self-report format Approximately 5-10 minutes required to complete each scale Scoring is completed manually Can be purchased through Pearson Assessment
$320 Canadian for assessment kit (Manual, 30 test forms per scale, and scoring guide)
(Pearson Assessment, n.d.; Sink & Edwards, 2005; Swearer & Love, 2005)

 Pilot testing in 1998: 417 grades 4-7 355 grades 7-12 students Two

phases of norming: BVS specific and RBVSS

BVS: national sample of 2405 students; RBVSS: national sample of 2000 students Approximately half male, half female Grades 3-12 students from 37 schools, across 11 states Norm group approximated the demographic characteristics of the general population of the US, at (Sink & Edwards, 2005; Swearer & that time period
Love, 2005; Twyman, Saylor, Saia, Macias, Taylor, & Spratt, 2010)

consistency reliability =.93 High test-retest reliability

Internal

r=.80 for Bullying sub-scale r=.81 for Victimization sub-scale

Criterion-related validity Moderate correlations (.43 to .46) with Teacher Bully-

Victimization Scale Correlated .40 with the number of times students sent to the office (for bullying related issues) in the past 6 months
(Hartung, Little, Allen, & Page, 2011; Sink & Edwards, 2005; Swearer & Love, 2005)

GENERAL RESEARCH

REYNOLDS BVS

Bullying is often understood as a process that involves repetition, intentionality, and a power imbalance Many forms of bullying exist Bullying serves a function for the bully, and victims are targeted for a reason

Only addresses repetition and forms of bullying

However, repetition of

bullying from one source or several sources can not be distinguished from the data revealed by the BVS

Does not capture information regarding the characteristics of the bully or victim.
(Greif & Furlong, 2006)

 Addressing

bullying in special populations

(Blood, Blood, Tramontana, Sylvia, Boyle, & Motzko, 2011; Peters & Bain, 2011; Saylor

& Leach, 2009; Taylor, Saylor, Twyman, & Macias, 2010; Twyman, Saylor, Saia et al., 2010)

Testing bullying-related hypotheses Relationship between social support and experiences

of victimization (Davidson & Demaray, 2007) Impact of the term bully on reported rate of bullying behaviours (Kert, Codding, Tryon, & Shiyko, 2010)
Comparing

traditional bullying experiences with cyberbullying

(Twyman, Saylor, Taylor, & Comeaux, 2010)

 Suggested applications Individual assessment tool School-wide screening device to identify at risk

students School-wide needs assessment Program evaluation tool

Pre-post assessment evaluative measure Can

be used to identify which aspects of bullying are prominent in order to design individual or group interventions that are (Hartung et al., 2011; McLaughlin, Laux, & appropriate Pescara-Kovach, 2006, Sink & Edwards,
2005)

 Behavioral

check list format may be more likely to elicit honest responses regarding bullying/victimization behaviours than face to face interviews Quick, easy to use, and low administration costs Can be administered at multiple time points to assess change Objective scoring
(Greif & Furlong, 2006; Hartung, et al., 2011)

 May

not capture the full scope of bullying/victimization experiences

Demonstrates a higher focus on physical bullying

behaviours (about 80% of items on each scale), which may lead to some cases of bullying and victimization to go undetected by the BVS Female students bullying behaviours Cyber-bullying
Psychometric

properties established using several scales written by the same author

(Greif & Furlong, 2006; Hartung et al., 2011;
Swearer & Love, 2005)

Blood, G. W., Blood, I. M., Tramontana, M., Sylvia, A. J., Boyle, M. P., & Motzko, G. R. (2011). Self-reported experience of students who stutter: Relations with life satisfaction, life orientation, and self-esteem. Perceptual and motor skills, 113, 353364. doi: 10.2466/07.10.15.17.PMS.113.5.353-364 Davidson, L. M., & Demaray, M. K. (2007). Social support as a moderator between victimization and internalizing-externalizing distress from bullying. School Psychology Review, 36, 383-405. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/publications/spr/index.aspx?vol=42&issue=2 Educational Testing Service. (n.d.). Reynolds Bully-Victimization Scales for Schools ( RBVSS). Retrieved from http://www.ets.org/ Greif, J. L., & Furlong, M. J. (2006). The assessment of school bullying: Using theory to inform practice. Journal of School Violence, 5, 33-50. doi:10.1300/J202v05n03_04 Hartung, C. M., Little, C. S., Allen, E. K., & Page, M. C. (2011). A psychometric comparison of two self-report measures of bullying and victimization: Difference by sex and grade. School Mental Health, 3, 44-57. doi:10.1007/s12310-010-9046-1 Kert, A. S., Codding, R. S., Tryon, G. S., & Shiyko, M. (2010). Impact of the word "bully" on the reported rates of bullying behavior. Psychology in the Schools, 47, 193-204. doi: 10.1002/pits.20464 McLaughlin, L., Laux, J. M., & Pescara-Kovach, L. (2006). Using multimedia to reduce bullying and victimization in third-grade urban schools. Professional School Counseling Journal, 10, 153-160. Retrieved from http://www.schoolcounselor.org/content.asp?contentid=235 Pearson Assessment. (n.d.). Reynolds Bully-Victimization Scales for Schools. Retrieved from http://pearsonassess.ca

Pearson Clinical. (n.d.). Reynolds Bully-Victimization Scale (RBVS). Retrieved from http://pearsonclinical.com.au Peters, M. P., & Bain, S. K. (2011). Bullying and victimization rates among gifted and highachieving students. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 34, 624-643. doi: 10.1177/016235321103400405 Saylor, C. F, & Leach, J. B. (2009). Perceived bullying and social support in students accessing special inclusion programming. Journal of Developmental Physical Disability, 21, 69-80. doi: 10.1007/s10882-008-9126-4 Sink, C. A., & Edwards, C. I. Review of the Reynolds Bully-Victimization Scales for Schools. In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.), The sixteenth mental measurements yearbook [electronic version]. Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements. Retrieved from the Buros Institute Test Reviews Online Web site: http://www.unl.edu/buros Swearer, S. M., & Love, K. B. (2005). Review of the Reynolds Bully Victimization Scales for Schools. In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.), The sixteenth mental measurements yearbook [electronic version]. Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements. Retrieved from the Buros Institute Test Reviews Online Web site: http://www.unl.edu/buros Taylor, L. A., Saylor, C., Twyman, K., & Macias, M. (2010). Adding insult to injury: Bullying experiences of youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Children's Health Care, 39, 59-72. doi:10.1080/02739610903455152 Twyman, K., Saylor, C., Taylor, L. A., & Comeaux, C. (2010). Comparing children and adolescents engaged in cyberbulling to matched peers. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13, 195-199. doi: 10.1089=cyber.2009.0137 Twyman, K. A., Saylor, C. F., Saia, D., Macias, M. M., Taylor, L. A., & Spratt, E. (2010). Bullying and ostracism experience in children with special health care needs. Journal of Developmental Behavioural Pediatrics, 31, 1-8. Retrieved from www.jdbp.org