The development of a bullying victimisation scale: the experience of Pakistani adolescents

This paper describes and evaluates the procedure for the development and validation of the bullying victimisation scale for Pakistani young people aged 12-18 years. During phase I, a total of 60 participants aged from 13 to 17 years were selected by using a multistage sampling strategy for item generation for bullying victimisation. In phase II, empirical validation was carried out by 10 experienced clinical psychologists for the cultural relevance of the scale. In phase III, a pilot study was carried out on 20 participants for testing the layout of the bullying victimisation scale (BVS). In the final phase, a total of 780 participants were selected through a multi-stage sampling within the age range of 12-18 years (M = 14.78, SD = 1.33) and were given a demographic Proforma, BVS, and School Children Problem Scale. Factor analysis identified a three-factor solution for bullying victimisation, consisting of emotional bullying, verbal bullying, and physical bullying. The current findings have implications for psychological and educational professionals for the identification and management of social and emotional problems in children resulting from bullying victimisation.