Cross-National Data on Victims of Bullying: How does PISA Measure up with Other Surveys? An update and extension of the study by Smith, Robinson, and Marchi (2016)

Abstract

Until recently, there were four sources of large-scale self-report survey data on victim rates, cross-nationally: EU Kids Online, Global School Health Survey, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and Health Behaviour of School-aged Children. Smith, Robinson, and Marchi (2016) examined the internal validity and external validity of these data sets, comparing country victimization rates. While internal validity correlations were high, external validity correlations ranged from moderate to zero, raising concerns about using these cross-national data sets to make judgements about which countries are higher or lower in victim rates. Another cross-national source of victim rates was released by PISA in 2016, and here we compare this PISA data with the earlier data sets, and the most recent data sets from HBSC and TIMSS. Correlations obtained were generally more acceptable than in the previous comparisons, and especially satisfactory for comparing PISA with TIMSS. Implications of the findings are discussed.