Psychometric Properties of the Cyberbullying Questionnaire (CBQ) Among Mexican Adolescents

Abstract

The first objective of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Cyberbullying Questionnaire (CBQ), an instrument for measuring the perpetration and victimization of bullying via new technologies for adolescents. The second objective was to analyze gender differences in the prevalence of cyberbullying. The study sample consisted of 1,491 Mexican adolescents (52.4% male and 47.6% female) with a mean age of 14.51 years (SD = 1.57, range = 12-18). A confirmatory factor analysis of the CBQ indicated a good fit of a model consisting of two factors designated as "perpetration" and "victimization." The internal consistencies for these subscales were adequate. Furthermore, multiple-group-covariance-structure analysis with the Mexican and a Spanish sample (N = 1008; 55.7% girls; mean age = 15.23 years, SD = 1.4) indicated equivalence of the factor structure of the CBQ across samples. An analysis of the relationship between the CBQ and other variables-such as the justification of cyberbullying, impulsivity, and depression-provided additional data supporting the construct validity of the instrument. Regarding gender differences in the prevalence of CB, perpetration was significantly higher for males than for females, whereas no differences were found for victimization. Finally, we discuss the contributions of this work to the field of study.