Abstract

Objective: Recent studies emphasize the importance of evaluation for relational /social behaviors (e.g., rejection,) as well as overt behaviors (e.g., hitting) in the assessment of peer aggression and victimization among school children. For this reason the present study aimed to evaluate the applicability of the two scales, namely Children’s Social Behavior Scale- Self Report -CSBS-SR (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995) and Children’s Self Experience Questionnaire-Self Report -CSEQ-SR (Crick & Grotpeter, 1996) for Turkish Elementary school children. CSBS-SR and CSEQ-SR include overt and relational dimensions of peer aggression and victimization respectively.
Methods: A representative sample consisting of a total of 422 (boys n=205; girls n=207) and 415 children (n=210; girls n=205) attending public and private elementary schools in Ankara were recruited for the validity and reliability studies of the CSBS-SR and CSEQ-SR respectively. The Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (ROBVQ; Olweus, 1996) were utilized for the criterion validity.
Results: Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the five factor model suggested for the CSBS-SR and three factor model for the CSEQ-SR met the criteria standards for adequacy of fit. A moderate correlation of the CSBS-SR with ROBVQ-Bully Subscale (r=.47) and moderate to high correlation of the CSEQ-SR with ROBVQ-Victim Subscale (r=.70) supported both scale’s criterion validitiy. CSBS-SR’s and CSEQ-SR’s test-retest reliability were found to be .64 and .80 and internal consistency assessed by Cronbach Alpha were found to be .84 and .90 respectively. T-test analyses for independent groups demonstrated that boys had higher mean scores for overt aggression than girls (t(423)=3.025, p

Key words: Assaultive behavior, violence, child, scale, reliability, validity