Aggression/Victimization Scale

Abstract

The Aggression/Victimization Scale is a brief, 12-item self-report measure designed for administration to youth and adolescents, typically within school settings. Its primary function is to quantitatively assess the frequency of involvement in interpersonal conflict across a short, defined recall period, usually the past seven days. The instrument simultaneously measures both the perpetration of aggressive behaviors and the experience of victimization. This dual focus makes the scale highly valuable for researchers, educators, and clinicians engaged in assessing the prevalence of various forms of conflict—including physical, verbal, and psychological aggression—and for evaluating the effectiveness of bullying and violence prevention programs in educational and community environments.

Developed by P. Orpinas and R. Frankowski, the scale provides a rapid and standardized metric for identifying students involved in high levels of conflict, allowing for the classification of individuals as purely aggressive, purely victimized, or as “bully/victims.”

Keywords

Aggression, Victimization, Bullying, Violence Prevention, Antisocial Behavior, Youth Assessment, Psychological Scale, Self-report, School violence, Peer relationships, Interpersonal conflict

Authors

P. Orpinas, R. Frankowski

Purpose

The principal objective of the Aggression/Victimization Scale is to deliver a standardized, quantitative assessment of specific aggressive and victimizing behaviors experienced or perpetrated within a defined social context, primarily among peers in school environments. The scale is meticulously structured to capture both the levels of perpetration (aggression) and exposure (victimization) concurrently, offering a comprehensive view of a young person’s role in conflict.

Beyond baseline assessment, this instrument serves as a critical metric for evaluating the efficacy of targeted behavioral interventions. By measuring the frequency of behavioral occurrences both before and after the implementation of programs—such as violence prevention or social-emotional learning initiatives—researchers can objectively determine whether these efforts successfully resulted in a reduction of aggression and victimization among the target population. It is recognized as a practical tool for monitoring behavioral trends and facilitating the early identification of youth exhibiting high-risk behaviors.

Construct

The Aggression/Victimization Scale is designed to measure the overarching psychological construct of youth interpersonal conflict. This construct is operationalized across two fundamental and distinct domains: Aggression (acts performed by the respondent) and Victimization (acts experienced by the respondent).

To ensure a nuanced understanding of conflict dynamics, these two domains are further subdivided into three distinct behavioral modalities, reflecting the multifaceted nature of peer conflict:

• Physical Aggression/Victimization: Behaviors involving direct physical harm or the threat of physical harm, such as hitting, kicking, or pushing.
• Verbal Aggression/Victimization: Actions centered on spoken harm, insults, or intimidation, including name-calling, yelling, or direct verbal threats.
• Psychological/Relational Aggression/Victimization: Behaviors involving emotional manipulation, social sabotage, or purposeful exclusion, such as spreading rumors or deliberate social isolation.

The integration of these six specific subscales (three types of aggression and three corresponding types of victimization) allows for sophisticated profiling of students, helping to differentiate among those who are primarily perpetrators, those who are primarily targets, and those who participate in both roles.

Validity

The Aggression/Victimization Scale demonstrates inherent structural validity due to its derivation from longer, previously validated precursor instruments—specifically, the original Aggression Scale and Victimization Scale. This lineage ensures strong face validity and content validity, as the items directly reflect observable and relevant aggressive and victimizing behaviors within the target youth population.

The clear differentiation of items into physical, verbal, and psychological subscales provides evidence for construct validity, confirming that the scale successfully measures distinct yet related forms of aggressive and victimized behavior frequently observed in school settings. Furthermore, its consistent and successful use across numerous intervention and prevention studies attests to its practical validity, confirming its utility as a sensitive measure of behavioral change in clinical and educational research.

Reliability

While specific reliability coefficients (such as Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency or test-retest reliability) for the exact 12-item combined scale must be confirmed by the specific research studies utilizing it, the reliability of the overall instrument is strongly supported by the established psychometric properties of its foundational components. For instance, the original Aggression Scale developed by Orpinas and Frankowski (2001) demonstrated sound internal consistency, providing a reliable basis for the aggression component of the combined instrument when measuring self-reported aggressive behavior in young adolescents. Researchers are advised to consult the primary literature for precise reliability estimates pertinent to their specific administration context.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the Aggression/Victimization Scale is theoretically grounded in a clear two-factor model corresponding directly to the two core domains: Aggression (measuring perpetration) and Victimization (measuring exposure). The 12 items are intentionally grouped to load distinctly onto these two factors.

Although the foundational source material does not typically provide specific details regarding a recent Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) or Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for this condensed 12-item version, the scale’s design inherently confirms the intended factor structure. The three behavioral modalities (physical, verbal, and psychological/relational) are systematically distributed across the two core factors, maintaining clarity between acting aggressively and being victimized. Further detailed information on the scale’s factor structure and psychometric properties is available in the related academic literature utilizing this instrument.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report behavioral frequency questionnaire

Format: Paper-and-pencil or digital survey format utilizing fixed response options based on frequency counts.

Language Available: English (Based on the original research context).

Population Group: Youth and adolescents, primarily those assessed in school-based populations.

Age Group: Typically administered to elementary school-age children (Grades 4 and 5), though the instrument is adaptable for use with older youth populations.

Population Details: Respondents are instructed to report on their frequency of interactions specifically involving “kids from your school” or “other kids,” focusing the assessment on peer conflict within the school environment.

Test Methodology: The scale comprises 12 items, equally divided between aggression and victimization. For each item, respondents indicate how many times they engaged in or experienced the specific behavior during the previous seven days. The response options utilize a range of frequency counts (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6+). All item point values are summed to yield a total score, which ranges from 0 to 72. Higher scores reflect higher levels of combined aggression and/or victimization. The scoring protocol specifies that if four or more items contain missing data, the total score is deemed invalid; if three or fewer items are missing, the missing values are imputed by replacing them with the respondent’s average score across the completed items.

Keywords

School violence, Youth risk behavior, Social conflict, Intervention efficacy, Delinquency and Antisocial Behavior, Peer relationships, Relational aggression, Physical aggression

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Aggression/Victimization Scale is featured in a publicly accessible compendium published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This public availability suggests that the scale is generally suitable for non-commercial research and public health assessment purposes. However, users intending to employ the scale for large-scale studies or commercial applications should confirm specific usage permissions directly with the original authors (P. Orpinas and R. Frankowski). The primary academic reference supporting the scale’s development and use is dated 2001.

Reference’s

The Aggression/Victimization Scale is formally documented in the publication: Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools. The specific instrument details can be found on pages 171-172 of this compendium.

The original PDF of the Compendium can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf

Additional academic context for the instrument is available via ERIC: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED486261.pdf

The core foundational research supporting the aggression component is:

Orpinas‚ P.‚ & Frankowski‚ R. (2001). The aggression scale: a self-report measure of aggressive behavior for young adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence‚ 21(1):51-68.

Items of the Aggression/Victimization Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Victimization

1. How many times did a kid from your school tease you?
2. How many times did a kid from your school push‚ shove‚ or hit you?
3. How many times did a kid from your school call you a bad name?
4. How many times did kids from your school say that they were going to hit you?
5. How many times did other kids leave you out on purpose?
6. How many times did a student make up something about you to make other kids not like you anymore?

Aggression

1. How many times did you tease a kid from your school?
2. How many times did you push‚ shove‚ or hit a kid from you school?
3. How many times did you call a kid from your school a bad name?
4. How many times did you say that you would hit a kid from your school?
5. How many times did you leave out another kid on purpose?
6. How many times did you make up something about other students to make other kids not like them anymore?