Dublin Anti-Bullying Self-Efficacy Models and Scales: Development and Validation

Abstract

Literature on anti-bullying programs shows a growing consensus about promoting victims and bystanders’ self-efficacy against bullying, but provides no theoretical model nor measurement scale to assess the extent of achieving this aim. The current research aims to address these theoretical and empirical gaps by proposing the Dublin Anti-Bullying Self-Efficacy Models and Scales, using a convenience sample of 14-year-old students in Ireland ( N = 1,100). After establishing both content and face validity, four separate scales were tested to measure anti-bullying self-efficacy beliefs among offline victims (20-item), online victims (20-item), offline bystanders (20-item), and online bystanders (20-item). Thereafter, four separate exploratory factor analyses of the scale items were followed by reflective measurement analyses of their internal consistency and construct (convergent and discriminant) validity. Results indicated sufficient psychometric properties of each scale measuring five dimensions of anti-bullying self-efficacy: recognition, emergency comprehension, responsibility, knowledge, and intervention. Further research is needed to test the proposed model and scale for assessing effectiveness of an anti-bullying program in promoting self-efficacy beliefs.

Dublin Anti-Bullying Self-Efficacy Scales: Bifactor and Item Response Theory Models

“…The present findings have implications for a school anti-bullying policy and practice as well as for further research. The extent of victim and bystander's self-efficacy beliefs can be used as a measure of the effectiveness of a school anti-bullying policy and program across countries, including Ireland (Sargioti et al, 2023). To measure the extent to which an anti-bullying program is ineffective for some participants or whether outliers are statistically representative of the student population attending that program, the cut-off score of 2.0 can be used to differentiate between low and high anti-bullying self-efficacy beliefs.…”

“…Such an evaluation leaves unclear the extent to which victim and bystander’s self-efficacy beliefs are effective in the prevention and/or intervention of online/offline bullying behaviors (Salimi et al, 2021). However, “there is a scarcity of published research on the measurement of both victim and bystander’s self-efficacy in bullying situations across countries, including Ireland” (Sargioti et al, 2023, p. 8). Research is needed for further validation of the new scales measuring the five steps of victim and bystander’s self-efficacy in tackling both offline and online bullying behavior (Sargioti et al, 2023).…”

“…For example, when victims have a caring and supportive teacher/parent/friend, they can demonstrate self-efficacy in tackling bullying behaviors (Kuldas & Foody, 2022). The theory hereby is not suggesting a trait-conception of self-efficacy as Bandura (1997) defined (the belief in individual ability to carry out a specific behavior in a successful way), because it lacks the account of social-ecological effects on the individual’s anti-bullying self-efficacy (Sargioti et al, 2023).…”

“…Unlike the trait-conception, the anti-bullying self-efficacy theory (Sargioti et al, 2023) provides a multidimensional conception and measurement scale for the identification of five steps that victims and bystanders take to intervene in online/offline bullying behaviors. These five steps are defined as dimensions of victim and bystander's self-efficacy to: (a) recognize online/ offline bullying behaviors, (b) comprehend the need for emergency intervention, (c) take responsibility for the intervention, (b) know what to do, and (e) intervene (Sargioti et al, 2023). The effectiveness of an anti-bullying program could be measured by the extent to which it has promoted anti-bullying self-efficacy beliefs pertaining to each step (Sargioti et al, 2023).…”

“…The extent to which the new scales allow for measuring each dimension alone and the general factor has remained unclear, mainly due to the lack of evidence for the dimensionality of anti-bullying self-efficacy construct. Recent results of four separate exploratory factor analyses (EFA) of the scales (Sargioti et al, 2023) displayed both: (a) the eigenvalue value of the first factor (e.g., 9.36 for the victim offline scale) was at least three times higher than the other factors in each scale (e.g., 2.84 for the second factor of the victim offline scale), and (b) at least three factors in each scale had considerable inter-factor correlations, ranging from .50 to .67. These results, as the ratio of the first to second eigenvalue >3.0 (Reise et al, 2010) and inter-factor correlations >.50 (Lorenzo-Seva & Ferrando, 2019a) or >.60 (García-Garzón et al, 2020), could be sufficient evidence for the co-existence of the general factor and sub-factors; therefore, the hypothesis of a bifactor model fit is appropriate to test (Reise et al, 2010).…”