PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Background: There is a lack of retrospective measures of peer victimization in the German language. Objective: The aim of the study was to construct and evaluate an event list for the retrospective assessment of stressful social experiences encountered in peer groups. Methods: The construction of the questionnaire "Fragebogen zu belastenden Sozialerfahrungen" (FBS; Questionnaire on stressful social experiences) was based on conceptual considerations. The psychometric properties were determined through data from an online survey (N=995). Results: Psychological distress and social anxiety of the sample were above the average of a healthy population. The questionnaire presented with satisfying stability over a 20-month period. Construct validity could be confirmed through correlations between the FBS and psychological distress as well as social anxiety. Subjects with high levels of social anxiety had significantly higher FBS scores compared to subjects with low levels of social anxiety, which indicates discriminative validity. Conclusions: The FBS can be recommended for use in research and practice. However, further validation in clinical and non-clinical samples is indicated.