Scenario context A

Bullying is rife in South African schools. Studies published in 2018 showed that the frequency of
bullying amongst high school learners increased during the period of 2015 to 2018. This behaviour
amongst learners, hampers efforts to raise educational standards and improve schools in our
country. Besides, the vicious cycle of bully/victim relationships has a negative influence on
individual learners.

In South Africa, bullying behaviour in schools has been found to lead to problems such as a low
self-esteem, low academic performance, absenteeism, depression, and consequently school
dropout. School governing bodies have to take school bullying seriously, not only because of its
effects on academic performance and school climate, but also because schools can be held
accountable for permitting an environment in which bullying occurs.

Bullying can be conceptualised in terms of three factors, namely (a) the form of bullying, (b) the
realm of bullying and (c) the impact of bullying. The form of bullying can be direct or indirect. Direct
forms of bullying involve taking belongings, name calling and taunting (perhaps about race,
gender, sexuality or disability). It is directed towards someone in person, face to face. Indirect
forms of bullying involve telling lies or spreading false rumours about someone behind their back,
sending mean notes to try and make someone disliked, or excluding someone from a social group
on purpose. The realm of bullying refers to bullying in the real world, as opposed to bullying in
cyberspace. Emerging technologies and increased reliance on digital communication lead to
opportunities for cyberbullying. Whereas bullying in the real world involves personal interaction,
cyberbullying occurs in email and social media. The impact of bullying concerns the nature and
severity of the effects that bullying has on the victim regardless of the realm in which it occurs.
The nature and severity of the effects of bullying is a result of how much power the bully has over
the victim.

You work as a research psychologist for the Department of Education Intervention Division that
specialises in promoting school environments free of bullying. Your division provides coaching to
principals, teachers and governing bodies in schools to make them aware of and to help them
deal with bullying behaviour amongst learners. The governing body of a public school in Tshwane
South, Gauteng Province, wants to learn more about the bullying behaviour in their school, as
they believe that this will help them deal with bullying behaviour amongst learners. The school
includes learners from different socio-economic circumstances. The school is multicultural, and
the medium of teaching is both English and Afrikaans.

You are requested to assist the school. Because funding is limited, you decide to use an existing
questionnaire, namely the School Bullying Questionnaire (SBQ). Before using the questionnaire,
you would need to evaluate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire to make sure it can
produce valid and reliable results. You have access to the questionnaire and a mini-manual that
provides additional information about the questionnaire. You read the questionnaire (B) and the
mini-manual (C) and schedule a meeting with some of your colleagues to discuss the
questionnaire. You evaluate the questionnaire by answering the MCQ questions in the
assignments available in Tutorial Letter 101 (section 8.6).
 Questionnaire B

School Bullying Questionnaire (SBQ)

Instructions

Read the following questions carefully. By answering these questions, you indicate what your
experiences of bullying behaviour in the school are. Please answer the questions as truthfully as
you can. The questionnaire is confidential and no one in your school will know what you have
answered. It is also anonymous, so please don’t put your name on it.

Section 1: Direct forms of bullying

Think about your school environment when you read the following statements, and in each case
indicate to what extent you agree or disagree.

Disagree Agree
entirely Disagree Uncertain Agree Entirely

1.1 Teachers and learners respect each [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

other in the classroom

1.2 I should become angry with a [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

teacher who says things that make
me feel inferior

1.3 Learners take things from my desk [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

without my permission

1.4 There are learners at school who [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

make negative remarks about the
clothes I wear

1.5 There are a lot of complaints at [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

school about learners being
intimidated by teachers

1.6 There are learners at school who are [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

always targeted for school pranks

1.7 Learners treat each other with [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

disrespect at school

1.8 One is not accepted in one’s school [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

environment if one’s peers are
unsupportive

1.9 It makes me anxious when teachers [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

target me as the black sheep in the
group

1.10 Some of the pranks learners play at [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

school are quite nasty
Section 2: Indirect forms of bullying

For each of the following questions, mark the answer you agree with most.

2.1 In the last two months I felt sick and anxious and I have been deliberately excluded from
class groups:
[ ] Often
[ ] Occasionally
[ ] Sometimes
[ ] Never

2.2 At school learners talk behind their peers’ backs:

[ ] Often
[ ] Several times
[ ] Never

2.3 My classmates are praised by my teacher, but I am ignored by my teacher:

[ ] Never
[ ] Sometime
[ ] Often
[ ] Virtually everyday

2.4 It is not acceptable to sometimes tell lies about one’s peers:

[ ] Agree
[ ] Disagree

2.5 My teacher neglects to pass information on to me that I need to do my assignment properly:

[ ] Definitely
[ ] Perhaps
[ ] Not that I know of
[ ] Certainly not

2.6 It is unacceptable to spread nasty rumours about fellow learners. I have in the past
spread nasty rumours.
[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Section 3: Impact of bullying

For each of the following statements/questions, mark the answer or response that applies to you.

3.1 I sometimes feel I am being bullied at school

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

If you answered No, proceed to Question 3.7

3.2 How often do you feel bullied at school?

[ ] Less than once a week
[ ] More than twice a week
[ ] About three or four times a week
[ ] Constantly
3.3 I feel hurt and angry when I receive abusive WhatsApp’s from my classmates
[ ] True
[ ] False

3.4 To contain oneself is a sign of high emotional intelligence. I react in an abusive manner
when another learner uses abusive language towards me
[ ] Never
[ ] Only when really necessary
[ ] Often
[ ] Always

3.5 How do you feel and behave when you are copied in on an abusive WhatsApp that one of
your school mates send to another learner? In the list below, mark all the statements that
are true for you
[ ] I ignore the message and forget about it
[ ] I try to forget about the message because it makes me feel anxious
[ ] I tell the abusive school mate not to copy me in on future abusive messages
[ ] I forward the message to my teacher
[ ] I treat the message as a joke and show it to other learners

3.6 How do you feel when another classmate spreads nasty rumours about you in the school?
In each of the following lines draw a cross to indicate where between the two words you
put yourself.
embarrassed - - - - - - - annoyed
worried - - - - - - - relaxed
afraid - - - - - - - bold
upset - - - - - - - calm
defenseless - - - - - - - defensively
angry - - - - - - - apoplectic

3.7 Which of the following are consequences of being the victim of bullying at school?
[ ] low self-esteem
[ ] poverty
[ ] borderline personality disorder
[ ] school dropout
[ ] university dropout

3.8 I like my school environment and the learners in my class because ……….

Section 4: Bullying in the home environment

In the following statements/questions, mark the answer or response that applies to you.

4.1 My parents say that I should defend myself when being bullied.
[ ] True
[ ] False

4.2 I defend my siblings from bullies.

[ ] True
[ ] False
4.3 Articles on bullying should be read by members of the household to help them understand
the phenomenon.
[ ] True
[ ] False

Section 5: Educational progress

For each of the following statements/questions, mark the answer or response that applies to you.

5.1 I have been in my present school for

[ ] 1 to 6 months
[ ] between 6 months and 1 year
[ ] more than 1 year
[ ] more than 2 years

5.2 Over this period my marks have improved

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

5.3 I feel I am performing in line with my academic potential

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

End of questionnaire
 Mini manual C

Mini Manual for the School Bullying Questionnaire (SBQ).

1. Aim and design

The School Bullying Questionnaire (SBQ) is a measure used with learners in a school context.
The questionnaire is used to obtain a profile of individual learners’ experiences of repeated
unreasonable or inappropriate behaviour directed towards a learner, or group of learners, that
creates a negative school climate and a risk to academic performance. The questionnaire can
also be used at group or class level. The experiences of the learners of a group or class team
can be combined to get the group’s experience of bullying profile.

Bullying is a form of behaviour that can be conceptualised in terms of three factors, namely (a)
the form of bullying, (b) the realm of bullying and (c) the impact of bullying. The form of bullying
can be direct or indirect. Direct forms of bullying involve taking belongings, name calling and
taunting (perhaps about race, gender, sexuality or disability). It is directed towards someone in
person, face to face. Indirect forms of bullying involve telling lies or spreading false rumours about
someone behind their back, sending mean notes to try and make someone disliked, or excluding
someone from a social group on purpose. The realm of bullying refers to bullying in the real world,
as opposed to bullying in cyberspace. Emerging technologies and increased reliance on digital
communication lead to opportunities for cyberbullying. Whereas bullying in the real world involves
personal interaction, cyberbullying occurs in email and social media. The impact of bullying
concerns the nature and severity of the effects that bullying has on the victim regardless of the
realm in which it occurs. The nature and severity of the effects of bullying is a result of how much
power the bully has over the victim.

2. Procedures for administration, scoring and interpretation of the SBQ

The SBQ contains the instructions for completing the questionnaire as well as the items of the
questionnaire. Individuals mark their responses on the questionnaire and need a pencil to do so.
The questionnaire can be administered to individual learners on a one-to-one basis or to groups
of learners and should not take more than 20 minutes to complete. Items may be explained if
necessary, but respondents should not be guided towards a specific answer.

The total score should be calculated and the factors of the SBQ should be considered separately
in addition to the total score. The total score is an indication of the general experience of bullying
in the school and classroom. But considering the factors separately provides the person’s
experience of bullying profile. For example, learners may not experience a high degree of direct
and indirect bullying but the impact of any bullying that they do experience may lead to a high
degree of anxiety. Therefore, the profile created by the subscales should be considered in addition
to the total score.

3. Properties of the SBQ

The SBQ consists of five sections, namely direct forms of bullying, indirect forms of bullying, the
impact of bullying, educational progress and career planning. Learners who do the test have to
complete all sections.

A large number of items were written that could be used to assess learners’ experiences of
bullying in the school or classroom. A panel of experts was used to select those items that best
represented the content domain of the SBQ.
The SBQ was pilot-tested in two randomly selected secondary schools in the Western Cape. A
random sample of 60 learners was drawn from three different grades in each school. Thus 20
learners were selected randomly from each of grade 10, 11 and 12 in each school. The total
sample consisted of 120 (2x60) learners. The sample details are provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Sample used in the development of the SBQ

Gender Grade
Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Total
Female 20 20 20 60
Male 20 20 20 60
Total 40 40 40 120

After administrating the questionnaire item analysis was done, obtaining inter-item correlations
as well as item-total correlations (i.e., how the learners’ item scores correlated with their total
scores. Weak items were discarded. Three of the original items of the direct form of bullying scale
had to be discarded. The discarded items either showed insufficient variance or did not
discriminate sufficiently between low and high scoring individuals. Table 2 shows the information
for 10 of the 120 learners who partook in the pilot test study. For each of these 10 learners the
table shows the item scores and the total test scores for the three items (Item 1.2, Item 1.3 and
Item 1.6) that were discarded.

The following scatterplots illustrate the relationship between item scores and total scores for the
three items. Each dot in a scatterplot represents a learner.

Table 2: Item scores and total test scores

Learner Item 1.2 Item 1.4 Item 1.5 Total Score
1 2 1 2 28
2 3 3 2 32
3 3 2 3 34
4 4 2 1 30
5 3 2 3 36
6 3 1 1 34
7 3 4 2 44
8 3 3 5 40
9 3 1 1 26
10 3 3 1 38
Note: Total scores are calculated by adding each learner’s item scores for all items in the questionnaire.
Only three of the item scores are shown in this table.

The following scatterplots (Figures 1, 2 and 3) illustrate the relationship between item scores and
total scores for the three items. Each dot in a scatterplot represents a learner.
 Figure 1: Scatterplot for Item 1.2
50
48
46
44 ●
42
40 ●
Total score 38 ●
36 ●
34 ●●
32 ●
30 ●
28 ●
26 ●
24
1 2 3 4 5
Item score

Figure 2: Scatterplot for Item 1.4

50
48
46
44 ●
42
40 ●
Total score 38 ●
36 ●
34 ● ●
32 ●
30 ●
28 ●
26 ●
24
1 2 3 4 5
Item score
 Figure 3: Scatterplot for Item 1.5
50
48
46
44 ●
42
40 ●
Total score 38 ●
36 ●
34 ● ●
32 ●
30 ●
28 ●
26 ●
24
1 2 3 4 5
The SBQ was subsequently administered to a random sample of 1 500 learners from secondary
schools across the country. The aim was to determine the reliability and validity of the SBQ. After
a period of four weeks, the SBQ was again administered to the learners. The scores of 5 of the
learners are given in Table 3 and Table 4. Table 3 shows their test scores for the first application
of the SBQ. For each of the 5 learners it lists the total for even numbered items and the total for
odd numbered items in the SBQ. Table 4 provides the total test scores for the first and second
application of the SBQ.

Table 3: Five learners’ test scores for 2 halves of the SBQ

Learner 1 2 3 4 5
Totals for even items 36 38 29 42 24
Totals for odd items 19 32 38 25 34

Table 4: Five learners’ test scores for 2 applications of the SBQ

Learner 1 2 3 4 5
First application 55 70 67 67 58
Second application 72 40 65 82 44

The inter-correlations among the five sections of the SBQ were calculated. This information is
provided in Table 5.

Table 5: Inter-correlations of the five sections of the SBQ

Factor Direct Indirect Impact Educational Career
Direct 1.0
Indirect 0.80 1.0
Impact 0.84 0.85 1.0
Educational -0.12 0.08 -0.12 1.0
Career 0.09 0.06 -0.10 0.18 1.0
The learners who completed the SBQ were also asked to complete the School and Classroom
Climate Questionnaire (SCCQ) and a Verbal Ability Questionnaire (VAQ). The correlation
between the SBQ and the SCQQ was -0.83. The correlation between the SBQ and the VAQ was
0.13. Teacher ratings of the bullying behaviour of learners were also obtained for the learners
who completed the SBQ. The correlation between the SBQ total scores of these individual
learners and the ratings provided by their teachers was 0.63. These results are provided in Table
6.

Table 6: Correlations between the SBQ and other measurements

SBQ SCCQ VAQ Rating
SBQ 1.0
SCCQ -0.83 1.0
VAQ 0.13 0.28 1.0
Rating 0.63 -0.52 0.22 1.0

End of manual