Identifying Bullied Youth: Re-engineering the Child-Adolescent Bullying Scale into a Brief Screen

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Measurement

Background:

• Youth bullying is a critical public health concern.
• Standardized screening for bullying exposure is not routinely practiced in clinical settings.
• The original 22-item Child-Adolescent Bullying Scale (CABS) was developed using classical test theory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize the measurement properties of the CABS using Rasch psychometric analysis.
• To develop a brief, clinically useful screening tool for bullying exposure.
• To refine the CABS into a shorter, efficient instrument for identifying at-risk youth.

Main Methods:

• Employed a methodologic design utilizing the Rasch rating scale model.
• Analyzed data from 352 youths across two clinical sites.
• Conducted Rasch-based analyses including category functioning, precision, dimensionality, targeting, and differential item functioning for item reduction.

Main Results:

• Iterative revisions based on Rasch analysis resulted in a 9-item screening instrument (CABS-9).
• The CABS-9 demonstrated optimized measurement properties.
• Provided cut-scores and interpretive guidance for clinical use in identifying bullying risk.

Conclusions:

• The CABS-9 shows promise as a valuable screening tool for identifying bullying exposure in clinical practice.
• The Rasch analysis facilitated the development of a psychometrically sound, brief measure.
• The refined scale aids in the clinical identification of youth affected by bullying.