Retrospective reports of school bullying: Stability of recall and its implications for research

Abstract

In this article a non‐probability sample of 60 lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women, who had all been bullied at school for a period of 5 years or more, were asked to complete a self‐report style questionnaire at two time points (12–14 months apart) to assess the stability of their recollections of bullying. Three particular types of recollection were explored: (1) age factors and calendar reference points, (2) incident or event recall, and (3) recall for peripheral factors (e.g. ramificationsandconsequences). The results suggested that participants were able to recallkey events intheirlivesandplace themwithina generalchronologywhichwas not found to vary greatly across the 12–14‐month period. They were also able to recall specific types of bullying occurring in specific locations with relative constancy. However, recollections of subsequent outcomes (e.g. telling a teacher) were recalled less well. It is argued that this study lends some support to the idea that retrospective studies have a role to play in applied research and that memory stability may be a useful indicator of reliability where prospective studies are difficult to conduct. However, they should not be seen as an alternative to longitudinalresearch.