Measuring 8 to 12 year old children's self-report of power imbalance in relation to bullying: Development of the Scale of Perceived Power Imbalance
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© The Author(s). 2019 Published in BMC Public Health. This article is published under the Open Access publishing model and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Please refer to the licence to obtain terms for any further reuse or distribution of this work.
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Background: While power imbalance is now recognized as a key component of bullying, reliable and valid measurement instruments have yet to be developed. This research aimed to develop a self-report instrument that measures power imbalance as perceived by the victim of frequent aggressive behavior.
Methods: A mixed methods approach was used (468 participants, Grade 4 to 6). This paper describes the exploratory (n = 111) and confirmatory factor analysis of the new instrument (n = 337), and assessment of reliablity and construct validity. Results: A 2-factor model represented physical and social aspects of power imbalance (n = 127: normed chi-square = 1.2, RMSEA =.04, CF1 =.993). The social factor included constructs of group and peer valued characteristics.
Conclusions: This research will enhance health and education professionals understanding of power imbalance in bullying and will inform the design and evaluation of interventions to address bullying in children.
