title: The development of a Peer Aggression Coping Self-Efficacy Scale for adolescents.
abstract: This study presents findings regarding the reliability and validity of a newly developed measure designed to assess children's self-efficacy for coping with peer aggression. The sample consisted of 2,161 participants (1,071 females and 1,090 males, who ranged in age from 10 to 15 years; 63% White, 17% Middle-Eastern, 10% Asian, and 10% from other ethnic groups). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the four conceptualized coping self-efficacy domains: self-efficacy for proactive behaviour, self-efficacy for avoiding aggressive behaviour, self-efficacy for avoiding self-blame, and self-efficacy for victim-role disengagement. Internal consistencies for the coping domains were between .87 and .90. Validity was examined by correlations between the coping self-efficacy domains and psychological adjustment variables. Greater coping self-efficacy was associated with less social anxiety, cognitive depression, and externalizing symptoms. The Peer Aggression Coping Self-Efficacy Scale provides a useful measure for examining children's self-efficacy for using a range of strategies to deal with peer aggression.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia. puneet.singh@psy.mq.edu.au
authors.forename: Puneet
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bussey
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy