Der Bullying- und Viktimisierungsfragebogen:Konstruktion und Analyse von Instrumenten zur Erfassung von Bullying im Vor- und Grundschulalter

Bullying is a serious risk with which many children are confronted today and, if unidentified and left unaddressed, can lead to the development of emotional and behavioral problems amongst such children. Recent studies have shown that bullying occurs to a considerable extent as early as at pre- and primary school-age. This circumstance necessitates the early identification of instances of bullying and the children involved in relation thereto. To date, however, no valid and manualized German language instrument exists, which would allow an economical assessment of bullying in kindergarten and primary school. The goal of this study accordingly was to develop instruments for assessing bullying in kindergarten and primary school age children (four to twelve years) and for identifying the children involved as bullies, victims or bully/victims. The study resulted in the construction and analysis of two instruments, one self-report (Bullying- und Viktimisierungsfragebogen für Kinder: BVF-K) and one teacher-report (Bullying und Viktimisierungsfragebogen für Erzieher/Lehrer: BVF-L), each assessing direct and indirect forms of bullying. Reliability of both measures was shown to be acceptable to very good (range of internal consistency: 0.76 to 0.91), retest-reliability of the BVF-L was good (rs = 0.78 to 0.88). Criterion and construct validity were analyzed and found to be acceptable. When used in conjunction, these instruments provide users with a reliable and valid method of assessing bullying and victimization, as well as offering a means of systematically identifying the children involved, whether as bullies, victims or bully/victim.