William M. Reynolds, PhD. California Association of School Psychologists March 18, 2004

1. Evaluation of Safe Schools:Applications and Interpretation of the Reynolds Bully-Victimization Scales for Schools William M. Reynolds, PhD. California Association of School Psychologists March 18, 2004

2. Workshop Outline • How safe are schools? • Bullying and victimization in schools. • Psychological distress caused by bullying. • The RBVSS: BVS, BVDS, and SVAS. • Interpretation of RBVSS measures. • Individual and school-wide applications. • Conducting needs assessments for safe schools. • Evaluating safe school intervention programs.

3. How Safe are Schools? In a national sample of over 13,000 adolescents reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention : • 33.2% of respondents reported being in a physical fight one or more times in the previous year, including • 43% of boys and 24% of girls, • with 1 out of 8 students in a physical fight on school property.

4. School Violence In the 12 months preceding the CDC survey, • 1 in 11 adolescents had been either threatened or injured with a weapon in school. • 1 in 15 high school students had missed one or more days of school in the 30 days prior because of fear for their safety.

5. Attempts at Solutions Title 4 of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (P.L. 94-103, HR 6), also known as the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, sought to meet the goal of violence free schools by the year 2000. Unfortunately, the problem of violence in schools, including that against children, appears to be unabated.

6. Problems in the Assessment of Bully Victimization • The behaviors may be subtle and may take place when school staff are not present. • The phenomena occur periodically over time in a way that may not be consistently observable by staff. • The phenomena are defined in part by the psychological impact on the child which may not be observable by staff. • Effected youth may be afraid to report the problem to staff. • Staff may also be intimidated by the behavior.

7. Bullying Bullying can range from mild behaviors such as calling another student a relatively benign name on a regular basis to bullying others by threat of or with physical harm on a routine basis often when teachers or authority figuresare not present.

8. Bullying Bullying refers to the use of physical, psychological, or direct verbal means either individually or in a group, to cause physical or psychological distress to others.

9. Bully Victimization Bully victimization is when physical, psychological, or verbal actions by other student or students, either directly or indirectly, cause physical or psychological distress to the recipient.

10. Who are Bully-Victims? • Sometimes the targets of bullies are bullies themselves, creating a youngster who is both a bully and a victim of bullying. • There may be tendency to focus on the bullying behavior and ignore or dismiss they fact that the child is also victimized.

11. The Reynolds Bully Victimization Scales for Schools

12. The RBVSS • Bully Victimization Scale (BVS) • Bully-Victimization Distress Scale (BVDS) • School Violence Anxiety Scale (SVAS)

13. Bully Victimization Scale (BVS) Bully Scale The BVS Bully Scale measures a range of bullying behaviors, including: Overt peer aggression such as throwing object at peers, hitting and fighting with other students, being with a group that assaulted other students, & intimidating other students to do things. Relational aggression and harassment including name calling, teasing, ridicule, and verbal threat.

14. Bully Victimization Scale (BVS) Victimization Scale The BVS Victimization Scale assesses overt peer aggression and relational aggression directed at the respondent. Domains of peer victimization assessed include being physically assaulted by peers, forced to do things they did not want to do, chased, spat on, threatened with harm, objects thrown at them, property destroyed, called names, teased and intimidated.

15. Bully Victimization Scale

16. Bully-Victimization Distress Scale (BVDS) The BVDS assesses the child’s psychological response to bully victimization in terms of: • BVDS Internalizing Distress Scale • BVDS Externalizing Distress Scale • BVDS Total Distress Scale

17. BVDS Internalizing Distress Scale The BVDS Internalizing Distress Scale consists of 21 items that evaluate internalizing characteristics including feelings of dysphoria, anxiety, school avoidance, fearfulness, nightmares, social withdrawal, self-harm, and other symptoms of internalizing distress in children and adolescents.

18. BVDS Externalizing Distress Scale The BVDS Externalizing Distress Scale consists of 14 items that evaluate anger, interpersonal aggression, destruction of others’ property, wishes to harm others due to anger, plans of retribution in the form of aggression directed at others, loss of temper, and breaking the rules at home or school.

19. Bully-Victimization Distress Scale

20. School Violence Anxiety Scale (SVAS) The SVAS is designed to evaluate student anxiety related to the school as an unsafe or threatening environment as reflected by participating in or observing bully victimization, observing or fearing weapons in school, witnessing a school shooting or other threatening event.

21. School Violence Anxiety Scale

22. National Standardization • Norms based on 2,000 children and adolescents in grades 3 through 12 • Stratified by Grade, Gender, Ethnicity, Geographic Region, and Parental Education Level • Consistent with Year 2000 Census

23. Spanish Language Versions • Developed by back translations • Field-tested with Spanish language sample • Strong reliability • Empirical evidence of equivalence with the English language version

24. Reliability • Scales are internally consistent, alpha coefficients range from .87 - .96 across grade and across gender for all scales. • Scale scores are consistent over time, test-retest reliabilities range from .76 - .88 across grade and across gender for all scales.

25. Validity • All measures show evidence of construct validity in several studies, including comparisons with teacher reports, measures of psychological adjustment, and school disciplinary actions. • Additional validity is provided by factor analyses and evidence of content validity.

26. Bullying by Grade Level

27. Victimization by Grade Level

28. BVDS Externalizing Distress Scale by Grade

29. BVDS Internalizing Distress Scale by Grade

30. SVAS by Grade Level

31. Interpretation of RBVSS Measures Individual student interpretation of RBVSS measures is based on standard scores; clinical score ranges of normal, clinically significant, moderately severe and severe; examination of the RBVSS profile; and item level analyses.

32. Case Report: Dustin Dustin was 11 years old and in grade 5 at a small public school. He was average height for his age, but very thin. Dustin had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and received speech and language services. He had an unusual communication style, rarely made eye-contact, and spoke in a relatively flat tone. Observations of Dustin at recess suggested that he was interested in socializing with his peers, although it appeared that other students often thought of him as strange.

33. Dustin’s Raw Scale Scores, T Scores and Cumulative Percentage

34. Overview of Dustin’s RBVSS Scores • Dustin reported a high degree of bully- victimization. • Dustin reported a high degree of internalizing distress about victimization. • Dustin also reports a high degree of generalized school violence anxiety. • We would want to know next if his response level is in the range of clinical significance.

35. Dustin’s Profile Chart

36. Item Level Analysis of Bully Victimization reported by Dustin • Dustin indicated five or more incidents in the past month of other students saying or doing things to him to make him feel bad, and of being chased by peers. • Twelve items were endorsed as occurring “Three or Four Times” in the past month. These included being hit or kicked, threatened by peers, having something thrown at him and being attacked by other kids.

37. Item Analysis of Dustin’s Internalizing Distress • Dustin endorsed one item related to generalized distress due to bullying as being experienced “Almost all of the Time.” • Dustin rated 10 of the 21 items on the Internalizing Distress Scale as occurring “A lot of the Time” in the past month. • A number of items so endorsed related to depression, including items reflecting crying behavior, dysphoric mood, and feelings of self-harm.

38. Item Level Analysis of Dustin’s Reported School Violence Anxiety • Dustin endorsed five items as occurring “A lot of the Time” over the past month. • Most of these items related to worries that others would make fun of him, call him names, or say mean things about him.

39. Use of the RBVSS for School Screening, Needs Assessment, and Safe Schools Program Evaluation

40. Two Gate Screening Program

41. Initial Stage: School- or Grade-Wide Screening The initial stage of the screening procedure is the administration of the RBVSS to all students in a school or grade on the same day and time. This can be done by teachers using instructions in the RBVSS Manual.

42. Second Gate Screening • Students scoring above the cut scores may be identified for follow-up interviews and possible referral or intervention. • Those identified in the sub-clinical but elevated range may be retested at a later point and/or seen for consultation.

43. School-Based Screening Allows for Identification and Documenting the Problem.

44. Conducting a Needs Assessment for Safe Schools The RBVSS provides a comprehensive set of measures for the evaluation of a school’s current bully victimization status, allowing for comparisons with a nationally representative sample to determine the need for active interventions.

45. Monitoring Change with the RBVSS • After administering RBVSS on a school-wide basis schools can monitor change in students’ bully victimization behavior, psychological response and perception of threat on a regular basis. • This establishes a “baseline” or “benchmark” • Schools will be prepared to assess the impact of unexpected critical incidents that may occur and identify areas of need.

46. Assessment of Effectiveness of Violence Prevention Interventions • Schools that plan a violence prevention program may administer the RBVSS scales before and after the intervention to monitor the effectiveness of the intervention. • This type of evaluation should use a control group that does not receive the intervention for comparison. • Assessment of impact should be long term.

47. The RBVSS is Available From: The Psychological Corporation / Harcourt Assessment, Inc. 1-800-211-8378 http://marketplace.psychcorp.com/PsychCorp.com/Cultures/en-US/Catalog/CatalogHome.htm

48. William M. Reynolds, Ph.D.Professor and Chair • Department of Psychology • Humboldt State University • Arcata, CA 95521 • Tel: 707 826-3162 • Fax: 707 826-4993 • Email: wr9@humboldt.edu • Web page: http://www.humboldt.edu/ ~psych/fs/reynolds/reynolds.htm