Assessing peer victimization across adolescence: measurement invariance and developmental change.

An upward extension of the Revised Social Experience Questionnaire (Paquette & Underwood, 1999) was tested in a sample of adolescents followed longitudinally from 7th through 10th grade. We hypothesized that a 2-factor model with overt and social victimization factors would fit the data better than would a unidimensional model (a single general victimization factor) or a 3-factor model (separately examining verbal, physical, and social victimization). The 2-factor model best represented the data, and we found support for longitudinal invariance of this model across 7th through 10th grades for both boys and girls. Such findings of temporal invariance are important for further longitudinal comparisons, and we suggest future directions for using the Revised Adolescent Social Experience Questionnaire to examine stability and change in victimization as well as evaluating the effectiveness of intervention programs. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.