title: A comparison of the Gatehouse Bullying Scale and the peer relations questionnaire for students in secondary school.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bullying occurs in all schools. Measuring bullying in schools is complicated because both definitions of bullying and methods for measuring bullying vary. This study compared a brief 12-item Gatehouse Bullying Scale (GBS) with items drawn from the Peer Relations Questionnaire (PRQ), a well-established bullying questionnaire to measure the concurrent validity of the GBS.
  
  
  METHODS
  Year 8 secondary school students (14 years of age) in metropolitan and regional Victoria, Australia, completed questionnaires assessing being teased, being deliberately left out, had rumors spread about oneself, and/or being physically threatened or hurt.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of bullying using GBS and PRQ was 57% and 61%, respectively. Percent agreement between the 2 measures was high. Agreement adjusted for chance was moderate (kappa 0.5). The GBS had good to moderate test-retest reliability (rho 0.65).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The GBS is a short, reliable tool measuring the occurrence of bullying in schools. As well as a global estimate of bullying, the GBS provides estimates of 2 covert and 2 overt types of bullying which can be useful for schools to better plan interventions dealing with school bullying.
authors.affiliation: Adolescent Health and Social Environments Program, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia. lyndal.bond@rch.org.au
authors.forename: Lyndal
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bond
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tollit
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Patton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000378:Agonistic Behavior; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012574:Schools; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology