The development of a Peer Aggression Coping Self‐Efficacy Scale for Adolescents

This study presents findings regarding the reliability and validity of a newly developed measure designed to assess children's self‐efficacy for coping with peer aggression. The sample consisted of 2,161 participants (1,071 females and 1,090 males, who ranged in age from 10 to 15 years; 63% White, 17% Middle‐Eastern, 10% Asian, and 10% from other ethnic groups). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the four conceptualized coping self‐efficacy domains: self‐efficacy for proactive behaviour, self‐efficacy for avoiding aggressive behaviour, self‐efficacy for avoiding self‐blame, and self‐efficacy for victim‐role disengagement. Internal consistencies for the coping domains were between .87 and .90. Validity was examined by correlations between the coping self‐efficacy domains and psychological adjustment variables. Greater coping self‐efficacy was associated with less social anxiety, cognitive depression, and externalizing symptoms. The Peer Aggression Coping Self‐Efficacy Scale provides a useful measure for examining children's self‐efficacy for using a range of strategies to deal with peer aggression.