Analysis

Revised Pro-Victim Scale [RPVS]

Description

The Revised Pro-Victim Scale [RPVS], associated with Rigby’s work on school bullying, is a brief self-report instrument designed to assess children’s and adolescents’ attitudes toward bullying, victims, and defending behaviors. The questionnaire contains 10 items addressing acceptance or rejection of bullying and sympathy toward victimized peers.

Purpose

The RPVS aims to assess whether students express pro-victim or pro-bullying attitudes, including their willingness to defend weaker peers, their emotional reactions to victimization, and their beliefs about children who are bullied.

Scoring

Participants respond using three categories: Agree, Unsure, and Disagree. Items 2, 5, 7, 9, and 10 are reverse-scored.

Higher appropriately coded scores can be used to reflect stronger pro-victim attitudes, depending on the scoring convention adopted.

Applications

The RPVS can be used in educational and psychological research to examine attitudes toward bullying and victimization, peer-support behaviors, and the effectiveness of school-based bullying prevention and intervention programs.

References

Rigby, K., & Slee, P. T. (1993). Dimensions of interpersonal relating among Australian school children and their implications for psychological wellbeing. Journal of Social Psychology, 133(1), 33–42.

Rigby, K. (1997). Attitudes and beliefs about bullying among Australian school children. Irish Journal of Psychology, 18, 202–220.

Rigby, K. (2011). What can schools do about cases of bullying? Pastoral Care in Education, 29(4), 273–285.