Assessing the bullying and victimisation experiences of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools: Development and validation of the Bullying Behaviour and Experience Scale

Children with special educational needs (SEN) are more likely to experience victimisation at school and there is some evidence to suggest that these children are also more likely to engage in bullying behaviours; however, no measure of bullying experiences has been designed specifically for use with these children. The Bullying Behaviour and Experiences Scale (BBES) was specifically developed as a self-report measure of victimisation and bullying behaviour for children with SEN. This study examines the initial psychometric properties of the BBES using a sample of 348 children (67 of which had SEN, mean age = 10 years), and compares the incidence of both victimisation and bullying in children with SEN to their peers, controlling for behavioural and emotional difficulties. Overall, the BBES showed favourable psychometric properties using multi-group confirmatory factor analyses and differential item functioning. Comparing the frequency of victimisation and bullying using the BBES showed that children with SEN were not more likely to experience victimisation compared to their peers but when extant behavioural and emotional difficulties were controlled for then they were significantly more likely to report victimisation. Conversely, children with SEN were more likely to report bullying compared to their peers, but this effect disappeared when extant behavioural and emotional difficulties were controlled. Overall, the BBES appears to be a promising measure of victimisation and bullying for children with SEN. This study also highlights the need to consider SEN status independently of behavioural and emotional problems to help understand the nature and extent of bullying and victimisation in this important population of children.