Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the bullying behaviours instrument in nursing education.

Objectives: This study assesses the psychometric properties of the Bullying Behaviors in Nursing Education Arabic (BBNE-A) version when used among nursing students.

Methods: We adopted a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study design and selected a convenience sample of 189 nursing students in a governmental university in KSA. We utilised an online survey to collect data between January and March 2020. The item-level content validity index and scale-level content validity index utilising the averaging method were used for content validity. The Cronbach's alpha and the intra-class correlation coefficient for the test-retest reliability were used for statistical analysis. We performed a principal component analysis with varimax rotation for construct validity. ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests were utilised to determine the association of variables.

Results: The analysis revealed three distinct factors explaining 59.7% of the variance. The overall Cronbach's alpha of BBNE-A was 0.886. The three factors ranged from 0.716 to 0.847. For the test-retest reliability, the ICC of the overall scale was 0.939. There was a significant difference in the BBNE-A overall scores in different years of study (F = 3.57,  = .030). A significant difference was also observed in the BBNE-A scores regarding positions in the family.

Conclusion: In our study, the BBNE-A demonstrated acceptable content and constructed psychometric properties. This tool can be utilised to accurately assess the bullying behaviours experienced by nursing students in KSA. The results can provide a basis for developing an anti-bullying guideline to make an optimistic, harmless clinical learning milieu in promoting nursing students' self-esteem and professional engagement.