Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ)

Abstract

The Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ), developed by Dan Olweus in 1996, is a widely used self-report instrument designed to assess the prevalence, nature, and frequency of bullying and victimization behaviors among school-aged youth. It is a cornerstone tool in school-based research and intervention programs, such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP). The questionnaire features parallel scales that measure both the extent to which a student bullies others and the extent to which they are bullied themselves, covering various direct and indirect forms of aggression, including physical, verbal, social, and, in later versions, cyberbullying.

The OBVQ is crucial for establishing baseline prevalence rates, evaluating the effectiveness of intervention programs, and identifying specific types of bullying prevalent among students. It is structured to differentiate between students who primarily act as bullies, those who are mainly victims, and those who exhibit characteristics of both (bully-victims).

Keywords

Bullying, Victimization, School Violence, Peer Aggression, Self-Report Questionnaire, Olweus, Psychometrics, School Psychology.

Authors

Dan Olweus.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the OBVQ is to provide a reliable and systematic method for monitoring the extent of bullying and victimization within a school environment or a specific population group. The data collected is essential for establishing baseline prevalence rates, evaluating the effectiveness of intervention programs, and identifying specific types of bullying prevalent among students.

The scale is structured to differentiate between students who primarily act as bullies, those who are mainly victims, and those who exhibit characteristics of both (bully-victims). This differentiation is critical for designing targeted psychological and educational interventions.

Construct

The OBVQ operationalizes the construct of bullying as aggressive behavior that is repeated over time and involves an imbalance of power. It measures two distinct, yet related, sub-constructs: the frequency of being a victim (Victim Scale) and the frequency of engaging in bullying behavior (Bully Scale). Items cover both traditional face-to-face aggression (e.g., physical harm, verbal abuse, social exclusion) and modern forms (e.g., cyberbullying via mobile phones and computers).

The detailed item sets allow researchers to capture various dimensions of peer aggression, including relational bullying (social exclusion, spreading rumors) and direct bullying (physical and verbal assault), providing a comprehensive picture of the school climate regarding peer relationships.

Validity

The validity of the OBVQ has been extensively examined across numerous international studies, supporting its use as a measure of peer aggression. Studies, such as those employing the Rasch measurement model (Kyriakides et al., 2006), have confirmed the scale’s ability to measure bullying and victimization behaviors along a single latent dimension.

Evidence for construct validity is supported by the consistent finding that the Bully and Victim scales correlate meaningfully with other measures of aggression, social functioning, and mental health outcomes. Furthermore, the two scales are generally found to be distinct, reinforcing the conceptual separation between perpetration and experience of harm. Cross-cultural adaptations, such as the Brazilian version (Gonçalves et al., 2016), have also demonstrated acceptable construct validity in non-Western populations.

Reliability

The OBVQ demonstrates strong Internal Consistency (Internal Consistency) across different cultural and national samples. The source content indicates that the internal consistency reliability, typically measured using Cronbach’s alpha, ranges from 0.80 to 0.90 among students tested in countries including Norway, the US, and the UK. These values suggest that the items within the Bully Scale and the Victim Scale are highly correlated and reliably measure their respective constructs.

High reliability indices are crucial for ensuring that the prevalence estimates derived from the OBVQ are stable and trustworthy, allowing researchers and practitioners to confidently track changes in bullying rates over time, particularly when evaluating intervention efficacy.

Factor Analysis

While the original structure of the OBVQ utilizes two primary scales (Bully and Victim), psychometric analyses, including confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch modeling, often investigate the underlying dimensionality of the items. Research frequently supports a two-factor structure corresponding to the self-reported roles (bully vs. victim).

More detailed analyses of the item content often reveal subfactors corresponding to the type of aggression (e.g., physical, verbal/relational, cyber). Studies focusing on specific adaptations, such as the Revised OBVQ (Kyriakides et al., 2006), confirm that the items function well as indicators of increasing severity or frequency of involvement in bullying behaviors.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychometric Scale.

Format: Paper-and-pencil or digital survey format. Uses a frequency-based Likert-type scale.

Language Available: English, Norwegian, Brazilian Portuguese (Questionário de Bullying de Olweus – QBO), and numerous other translations globally.

Population Group: School-aged children and adolescents (typically primary and secondary school pupils).

Age Group: Generally used for students aged 8 to 16, though specific age ranges vary by study.

Population Details: Students in educational settings across diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The scale has been validated in specific populations, including the visually impaired (Gothwal et al., 2013).

Test Methodology: Students respond to items detailing specific bullying acts they have perpetrated or experienced over a defined period (e.g., the last couple of months). The standard version uses a 5-point frequency scale, while some adaptations, like the Brazilian version, use a 4-point scale.

The original 5-point frequency scale options are: (1) “I have not been bullied during last couple of months”, (2) “Once or twice in the last couple of months”, (3) “2 or 3 times a month”, (4) “About once a week”, (5) “Several times a week”. The Brazilian version utilizes a 4-point scale: (1) “Never”, (2) “Once or twice a month”, (3) “Around once a week”, and (4) “Several times a week”.

Keywords

School bullying, Peer relations, Aggression assessment, Self-report measure, School climate, Cyberbullying.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: Research Centre for Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway (Affiliation based on 1996 reference).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire was formally published by Dan Olweus in 1996. While the original version is frequently used in publicly funded research and intervention programs, specific permissions and licensing fees for commercial use or large-scale implementation (especially within the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program context) may apply and should be verified directly with the Olweus organization or publisher.

The instrument is publicly available in several forms for academic use. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6706/7/no_46_second_edition_Redacted.pdf.

Reference’s

1. Olweus, D. (1994). Annotation: Bullying at school: Basic facts and effects of a school based intervention program. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 1171-1190.
2. Olweus, D. (1996). The Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Bergen, Norway: Research Centre for Health Promotion, University of Bergen.
3. Olweus, D. (1997). Bully/victim problems in school: Facts and intervention. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 8(4): 495-510.
4. Solberg, Mona E. and Olweus, Dan. (2003). Prevalence Estimation of School Bullying With the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Aggressive Behavior, 29: 239–268.
5. Kyriakides, Leonidas., Kaloyirou, Chrystalla and Lindsay, Geoff. (2006). An analysis of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire using the Rasch measurement model. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76: 781–801.
6. Gothwal, V.K., Sumalini, R., Irfan, S.M, Giridhar, A., Bharani, S. (2013). Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire: evaluation in visually impaired. Optom Vis Sci, 90(8):828-35.
7. Gonçalves, F. G., Heldt, E., Peixoto, B. N., et al. (2016). Construct validity and reliability of Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire – Brazilian version. Psicologia: Reflexão e CríticaPsychology: Research and Review, 29:27. (Available online: https://prc.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41155-016-0019-7)

Items of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ)

Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ)

victim scale

1. I was called mean names, made fun of, or teased in a hurtful way
2. Other pupils left me out of things on purpose, left me out from their group of friends, or completely ignored me
3. I was hit, kicked, pushed, shoved around, or locked indoors
4. Other pupils told lies or spread false rumours about me and tried to make others dislike me
5. I had money or other things taken away from me or damaged
6. I was threatened or forced to do things I didn’t want to do
7. I was bullied with mean names or comments about my race or colour
8. I was bullied with mean names or comments about my religion
9. I was bullied with mean names, comments, or rude gestures
10. I was bullied with mean names, comments or gestures with a sexual meaning
11. I was bullied with mean names or comments about my ability
12. I was bullied with the use of mobile phones
13. I was bullied with the use of computers
14. I was bullied in another way

Bully scale

1. I called another pupil(s) mean names, made fun of or teased him or her in a hurtful way
2. I kept him or her out of things on purpose, excluded him or her from my group of friends or completely ignored him or her
3. I hit, kicked, pushed and shoved him or her around or locked him or her indoors
4. I spread false rumours about him or her and tried to make others dislike him or her
5. I took money or other things from him or her or damaged his or her possessions
6. I threatened or forced him or her to do things he or she didn’t want to do
7. I bullied him or her with mean names or comments about his or her race or colour
8. I bullied him or her with mean names or comments about his or her religion
9. I bullied him or her with mean names or comments about his or her disability
10. I bullied him or her with mean names comments or gestures with a sexual meaning
11. I bullied him or her with mean names or comments about his or her ability
12. I bullied him or her with the use of mobile phones
13. I bullied him or her with the use of computers
14. I bullied him or her in another way

Questionário de Bullying de Olweus – QBO (Brazilian Portuguese version)

victim scale

1. Somebody punched, kicked, or pushed me
2. Somebody pulled my hair or scratched me
3. I was threatened
4. I was forced to hand over my money or belongings
5. Somebody snatched my money or belongings without my consent
6. Somebody broke my things
7. Somebody yelled at me
8. I was insulted because of my color or race
9. I was insulted because of a physical characteristic
10. I was humiliated because of my sexual preference of mannerisms
11. Somebody made fun of my accent
12. People laughed and pointed at me
13. Somebody gave me nicknames I didn’t like
14. I was cornered/pushed against a wall
15. I was followed inside or outside the school
16. I was sexually harassed
17. I was not allowed to join a group of classmates
18. I was totally ignored by others
19. Somebody falsely accused me of snitching things from my classmates
20. Somebody said bad things about me or my family
21. Somebody tried to make other dislike me
22. I was forced to physically harm a classmate
23. Somebody used the Internet or a cell phone to harm/offend me

Bully scale

1. I hit, kicked, or pushed someone
2. I pulled someone’s hair or scratched them
3. I threatened someone
4. I forced somebody to give me their money or belongings
5. I snitched money or things from others
6. I damaged other people’s belongings
7. I yelled at someone
8. I insulted someone because of their skin color or race
9. I insulted someone because of a physical characteristic
10. I humiliated somebody because of their sexual preference or mannerism
11. I made fun of someone because of their accent
12. I laughed or pointed at someone
13. I made nicknames for others that they didn’t like
14. I cornered or pushed someone against a wall
15. I followed someone inside or outside the school
16. I sexually harassed someone
17. I didn’t let someone join a group of classmates
18. I completely ignored someone
19. I falsely accused someone of taking the belongings of classmates
20. I said bad things about someone or their family
21. I tried to make people dislike someone
22. I forced someone to hit/offend another classmate
23. I used the Internet or cell phone to harm/offend a classmate