Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale Research Articles

Types and Prevalence of Peer Victimization among Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria: Implications for Counselling

The study inve stigated the types and prevalence of peer victimization among secondary school students in Osun State. This was with a view to improving peer relationships among secondary school students. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of junior secondary school students in Osun State. Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale was used to elicit information on the types and prevalence of peer victimization. The result showed that four types of peer victimization were experienced by the students and there was high prevalence of peer victimization among school going adolescent. These types were widespread among secondary school students. The study therefore concluded that peer victimization was a recurring problem among secondary school students and could be reduced through appropriate counseling of students. The implications of the findings to counseling services were discussed.

Physical and Relational Victimization, and Children’sEmotional Adjustment in Middle Childhood

Peer victimization refers to children’s experience of being a target of physical, verbal or relational aggressive behavior from peers. Research indicates that peer victimization is a phenomenon of high prevalence during childhood and adolescence, and can lead to both concurrent and prospective maladjustment on the part of victim. Although in recent years there has been an increasing interest in the research on children’s peer victimization, most of these studies have focused on physical form of victimization and were conducted with children in Western cultures. Research into victimization among children in Chinese schools has been rare. The present study investigated the characteristics of physical and relational victimization and their associations with emotional adjustment among Chinese children during middle childhood. The participants of this study were 2603 children in their middle childhood from 51 classrooms in 14 schools (mean age=9.05±0.53 years) in Jinan, capital city of Shandong Province in mid-eastern China, with approximately equal number of boys (51.98%) and girls (48.02%). The Chinese version of the Multi-dimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS, Mynard Joseph, 2000) was used to tap children's experience of peer victimization. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted and indicated that the Chinese version of MPVS had good structural validity. Measures of children's emotional adjustment included Children’s Loneliness Scale (Asher, Hymel Renshaw, 1984), Social Anxiety Scale for Children (La Greca, 1988) and Children’s Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1992). The participants responded to all the measures in a manner through self-report. Children reported experiencing more physical than relational forms of victimization. Inconsistent with the pattern of gender differences that has been reported in studies on children in Western cultures, boys in Chinese schools reported more victimization of both relational and physical forms than did girls. Both physical and relational victimization had a negative effect on children’s emotional adjustment, but the negative effect of relational victimization was greater than that of physical victimization. Children’s reporting of physical victimization predicted social anxiety only for girls, while relational victimization contributed to children’s social anxiety for both male and female. Nonetheless, gender didn’t moderate the relationship between either form of victimization and loneliness as well as depression. Overall, the associations between peer victimization and children’s emotional adjustment did not vary as a function of children’s gender. The findings of this study suggest that the patterns of gender differences in relational victimization vary with cultures, though that of physical victimization remains consistent. To the extent that relational victimization has a unique negative effect on children’s emotional adjustment, future research should pay more attention to this form of victimization.

Cultural Validation of the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale in Nigerian Children

This study attempted cultural validation of the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale for use with Nigerian children. In it, 240 primary school pupils in Grades 4 and 5 (131 boys and 109 girls; age 7 to 12) purposively selected from five nursery/primary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria, participated. The Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale was administered, and analysis yielded Cronbach's alpha of .78 for internal consistency and split-half reliability of .76. Principal component analysis identified four factors with Eigenvalues greater than 1.00, with all items loading above .49. Gender and age effects were not significant on total peer victimization score, although significant gender and age differences were observed on some subscales. The scale correlated significantly with the Buss and Durkee Aggression Scale. Results suggest the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale can be used to measure Nigerian children's experience of peer victimization and provide an initial step toward further cross-cultural work on peer victimization.

The relationship between bullying and self‐worth in children with movement coordination problems

Past research has indicated that there is a negative relationship between victimization and self-worth. Furthermore, children with movement problems such as developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are considered at risk of both victimization and low self-worth. This study investigated the relationship between peer-victimization and self-worth in a group of children with DCD and control children. Forty-three children aged 7-11 years were identified as at risk of DCD, and were matched on age and gender with 43 control children. Children were individually assessed using the Multi-dimensional peer victimization scale (MPVS; Mynard & Joseph, 2000) to assess the degree and type of bullying, and the self perception profile for children (SPPC; Harter, 1985) to determine self-worth. The two groups did not differ significantly on mean reported self-worth or mean peer-victimization. The relationship between these two measures, however, differed across group and gender. Peer victimization and self-worth were negatively correlated only for the children at risk of DCD. Furthermore, peer victimization accounted for a greater and statistically significant proportion of the variance in the self-worth of girls at risk of DCD compared with boys. This effect of peer-victimization on self-worth in girls with DCD was uniquely attributed to the effects of verbal victimization. Although children with and without motor coordination problems reported equivalent amounts of victimization, there were differences in the impact of that bullying. Specifically, self-worth was negatively affected by bullying for the girls with DCD. Teachers and parents should not only focus on the amount of bullying a child receives, but should also be aware of how bullying impacts differently on self-worth across groups.