Psychometric Development of an Instrument Measuring Social Bullying in Nursing Academia

Item Development and Content Validation

Abstract

Background 

Social bullying in academic nursing schools is an understudied area, yet extant research shows it is prevalent.

Purpose 

The purpose of this study was to generate a formal definition for academic social bullying and content validate an instrument measuring it in academic nursing.

Methods 

Classic psychometric theory and survey design were used to develop an instrument measuring academic social bullying. Extensive literature review and analysis of existing instruments were conducted; 108 items indicating bullying behaviors and organizational characteristics were created. This study targeted establishing initial content validity. Forty nurse experts who had experienced or published on academic bullying were invited; 24 responded. Experts rated agreement with relevance/appropriateness of items using a Likert scale and provided comments.

Results 

Forty items with content validity indexes near 0.80 and supportive comments were retained. A formal definition was developed from experts' feedback.

Conclusions 

Insights regarding differences between bullying and incivility were obtained.

In Brief

Twenty-four experts in academic bullying were identified and responded to the original 108-item instrument. A formal definition of academic social bullying was developed from experts' feedback for future research use. Narrative comments were evaluated, and item content validity indexes (CVIs) for 108 items and scale CVI ratings were calculated. A 40-item instrument was developed and will be tested for psychometric properties in further research on nursing and health sciences faculty. The ultimate goal is to generate an instrument to assess social bullying in academia with a valid, reliable measure.