The Peer Victimization in College Survey: Construction and Validation

Colleges and universities are increasingly concerned about respect for diversity and tolerance of individual differences on their campuses. Nevertheless, no comprehensive measure of peer victimization has been developed and validated for use with college student populations. The Peer Victimization i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological assessment 2020-09, Vol.32 (9), p.851-871
Main Authors: Cole, David A., Lubarsky, Sophia R., Nick, Elizabeth A., Cho, Grace E., Nunez, Miguel, Suarez-Cano, Gabriela, Jacquez, Farrah M., Mick, Cassandra, Zhang, Yinghao, Lovette, Abbegail J., Ford, Mallory A., Lu, Ruolin, Gabruk, Megan E., Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Anxiety
Belonging
Bullying
Bullying - psychology
Bullying - statistics & numerical data
Campuses
College students
Colleges
Construct Validity
Convergent Validity
Discriminant Validity
Female
Human
Humans
Major Depression
Male
Peer Group
Peer Relations
Peer review
Psychometrics - instrumentation
Qualitative Research
Quantitative psychology
Reproducibility of Results
Risk Factors
Stress
Students - psychology
Students - statistics & numerical data
Surveys and Questionnaires
Test Construction
Test Validity
Universities
Victimization
Young Adult
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Summary:Colleges and universities are increasingly concerned about respect for diversity and tolerance of individual differences on their campuses. Nevertheless, no comprehensive measure of peer victimization has been developed and validated for use with college student populations. The Peer Victimization in College Survey (PVIC) is the first such measure. Study 1 (N = 733) reports how PVIC items were empirically derived to ensure construct coverage. Study 2 (N = 100) reports how intuitive PVIC subscales were established to distinguish between subtypes of college peer victimization. Study 3 (N = 520) provides evidence of convergent, discriminant, and construct validity for the PVIC, including its relations to risk factors and to outcomes such as depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, and college sense of belonging. Study 4 (N = 633) validates several PVIC scaling methods and provides evidence of incremental validity of the measure over current (unvalidated) measures. The PVIC can assess subtypes of peer victimization on college campuses, evaluate the effectiveness of campus intervention efforts, and test hypotheses about the causes and effects of peer victimization. Public Significance Statement This study introduces the first validated measure of peer-on-peer victimization among college students, the Peer Victimization in College (PVIC) Survey. Derived from college students' own personal experiences, the study identifies 10 broad types of peer victimization that occur on college campuses. The PVIC can be used both by researchers who study bullying and by college officials who want to understand peer victimization or the effectiveness of interventions on their campuses.
ISSN:1040-3590
1939-134X
DOI:10.1037/pas0000888