Help-Seeking Outcome Expectancies of Bullied Youth: Development and Validation of the Victimization Help-Seeking Outcomes Scale

A significant proportion of peer victimized youth “suffer in silence,” not seeking help from teachers at school who can effectively address the bullying situation. Victimized adolescents may not seek help from teachers due to potential negative personal, social, or situational consequences and because they anticipate that seeking help will not lead to any positive outcomes. The current study aimed to develop and validate the Victimization Help-Seeking Outcomes Scale (VHSOS), a self-report measure of anticipated outcomes of help-seeking for bullying victimization. Data collected from 585 Canadian adolescents aged 14–19 were examined in the study. Participants completed the VHSOS in addition to measures of bullying involvement, peer relationship quality, relative power in peer relationships, shame, hopelessness, and help-seeking (intentions and behaviors). Exploratory structural equation modeling was conducted to extract factors and test measurement invariance. A three-factor model of the VHSOS best fit the data. Adolescents perceived potential help-seeking benefits, personal/social costs, and situational costs to seeking help for bullying victimization. The VHSOS demonstrated strong measurement invariance across gender and age. Boys and younger adolescents perceived greater social costs to seeking help than girls and older adolescents, respectively. The VHSOS subscales demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .85–.89) as well as discriminant and convergent validity with peer relationship quality, relative power, shame, hopelessness, and help-seeking. The VHSOS is a psychometrically valid measure that can be used to assess youths’ perceptions of possible outcomes of help-seeking.