A comparison of the Gatehouse Bullying Scale and the peer relations questionnaire for students in secondary school.

BACKGROUND Bullying occurs in all schools. Measuring bullying in schools is complicated because both definitions of bullying and methods for measuring bullying vary. This study compared a brief 12-item Gatehouse Bullying Scale (GBS) with items drawn from the Peer Relations Questionnaire (PRQ), a well-established bullying questionnaire to measure the concurrent validity of the GBS. METHODS Year 8 secondary school students (14 years of age) in metropolitan and regional Victoria, Australia, completed questionnaires assessing being teased, being deliberately left out, had rumors spread about oneself, and/or being physically threatened or hurt. RESULTS The prevalence of bullying using GBS and PRQ was 57% and 61%, respectively. Percent agreement between the 2 measures was high. Agreement adjusted for chance was moderate (kappa 0.5). The GBS had good to moderate test-retest reliability (rho 0.65). CONCLUSIONS The GBS is a short, reliable tool measuring the occurrence of bullying in schools. As well as a global estimate of bullying, the GBS provides estimates of 2 covert and 2 overt types of bullying which can be useful for schools to better plan interventions dealing with school bullying.