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.
The BBES is a quick, reliable way to let kids with SEN report bullying, revealing they face more victimisation than peers even when behaviour issues are ruled out.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fink et al. (2015) built a new kid-friendly scale called the BBES.
It asks children with special needs about bullying they see or feel at school.
The team checked that the questions make sense, stay consistent, and truly catch bullying.
What they found
The BBES passed every psych test.
Kids with SEN said they were picked on more often than peers, even after the researchers held behavior troubles constant.
That means the label alone, not acting-out, links to higher victim scores.
How this fits with other research
Maciver et al. (2020) did the same kind of work, but their new scale asks teachers about class participation, not kids about bullying.
Both tools are free, quick, and meant for inclusive rooms, so you can grab either without extra gear.
Syropoulou et al. (2021) also vetted a self-report for late-elementary pupils with mild ID, showing kids with disabilities can give reliable data if wording is simple.
Together these papers say: when you want facts from students with SEN, first make sure the form is short and clear.
Why it matters
You now have a tested bullying screen that takes minutes and uses the child’s own voice.
Give the BBES during annual reviews or when social skills dip.
If scores are high, write anti-bullying goals, teach peer advocacy, and track change each term.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
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.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.048