Relative victimization scale: initial development and retrospective reports of the impact on mental health

Abstract

Background: Bullying and victimization have been studied in many contexts and classified as peer victimization in school settings and parental or sibling victimization within family settings. Yet, current research is scarce on whether victimization occurring within family settings is specific to parental or sibling victimization. Thus, the current study aims to develop a scale assessing victimization conducted by relatives and provide support for its psychometric properties. Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected from university students (1622 and 1045 students, respectively) and participants responded to questionnaires via an online survey. Results: EFA and CFA results demonstrated the unidimensionality of the Relative Victimization Scale (RVS) consisting of eight items. In terms of convergent validity, RVS scores were correlated with the scores on parental, sibling, and peer victimization scales and several psychological health outcomes including depression, anxiety, social anxiety, perceived stress, loneliness, negative and positive affect, life satisfaction, and resilience. Moreover, RVS explained a significant amount of variance beyond the contribution of parental, sibling, and peer victimization in those psychological health outcomes for the support of incremental validity. Conclusions: The findings of the study indicated the potential utility of the RVS in assessing the experience of relative victimization through offering support for internal consistency reliability and construct, longitudinal predictive, and incremental validity.