From Bystander to Defender: Developing and Validating a Scale for Measuring Defending Behaviors Among Indonesian Adolescents in Bullying Contexts

khairatul Ulya Ilma, Tina Hayati Dahlan, Nandang Budiman

Abstract


Abstract: Defending behaviors play a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of bullying on victims. However, many prevention and intervention programs promote peer defending without a clear understanding of the specific behaviors adolescent’s exhibit. To address this gap, a scale on defending behavior in bullying contexts among Indonesian adolescents was developed and validated using the Rasch Model. Rasch analysis, conducted with Winsteps software version 3.73, examined key psychometric properties, including discrimination index, including discrimination index, item difficulty, item-person fit, scale reliability, response category effectiveness, item bias, and respondent classification profiling. Data were collected from 142 junior high school students in Grades 7-9. The final version of the scale comprises 28 items distributed across four dimensions: solution focused defending, aggressive defending, comforting, and reporting to authority with 5 response options. The overall person-item interaction yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88, indicating excellent internal consistency. Additionally, the person reliability index was 0.86, reflecting high response consistency among participants. These findings confirm that the scale meets psychometric requirements and is a valid and reliable tool for assessing defending behavior in adolescent bullying contexts.

 


Keywords


Defending Behavior; Bullying; Peer Intervention; Adolescents; Validity; Rasch Model.

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