Translation and Validation of Hindi Version of Adolescent Peer Relation Instrument for Bullying Victimization

To translate and validate the Hindi version of Adolescent Peer Relation Instrument (APRI) and to evaluate the burden of bullying victimization among school-going adolescents.

A school-based cross-sectional study was performed from July 2021 to June 2022 on 9th–12th class students. Adolescent Peer Relation Instrument (APRI) was used to evaluate bullying victimization. Reliability and validity of tool, and the prevalence and strength of association were analyzed by appropriate statistical methods.

Bullying and victimization were present in 70.8% and 62.9% adolescents, respectively. Total bullying and total victimization was significantly more in boys (OR 1.993, 95% CI 1.281, 3.099 for bullying and OR 1.584, 95% CI 1.047, 2.397 for victimization). Cronbach’s alpha for bullying and victimization was 0.89 and 0.897, respectively. Convergent validity between items of different subscales of bullying and victimization was observed (r value > 0.7) except for social bullying and social victimization. There was a weak correlation between subscales of bullying and victimization suggestive of discriminant validity (r value < 0.4).

The Hindi version of APRI has a good reliability and construct validity. About three-fourths and two-thirds of adolescents were involved in bullying and victimization, respectively, with a few identified risk factors.