Development and validation of the multidimensional offline and online peer victimization scale

Peer victimization can seriously impair one’s well-being. As youth spend more time on the Internet, a new form of peer victimization has emerged, namely, online peer victimization. To fully comprehend peer victimization among today’s youth, there is a need for a psychometrically sound measure that can assess peer victimization occurring both offline and online. In addition, research has shown that it is also important to distinguish between direct and indirect peer victimization. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop and validate the Multidimensional Offline and Online Peer Victimization Scale (MOOPV). The MOOPV measures how often adolescents experience direct and indirect forms of offline and online peer victimization. The four-factor structure of the MOOPV was confirmed using exploratory (n = 325) and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 799) among adolescents aged 9-18 years. As expected, higher scores on all subscales were related to lower levels of psychosocial wellbeing, i.e., less life satisfaction, more loneliness and less social self-esteem. In all, the 20-item MOOPV proved to be a valid, reliable and highly useful instrument. Importantly, because the MOOPV is not linked to specific technologies, it will remain viable even after new technologies for online communication become available.