The initial construction of a roasting measure and examination of the associations among roasting, verbal bullying, social anxiety, and depression

Rivers, Tyrone

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/78493 Copy

Description

Title

The initial construction of a roasting measure and examination of the associations among roasting, verbal bullying, social anxiety, and depression

Author(s)

Rivers, Tyrone

Issue Date

2015-04-24

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Espelage, Dorothy L.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Espelage, Dorothy L.

Committee Member(s)

• Neville, Helen A.
• Anderson, Carolyn J.
• Larson, Reed W.

Department of Study

Educational Psychology

Discipline

Educational Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• roasting
• ritual insults
• playing the dozens
• verbal bullying
• social anxiety
• depression

Abstract

The current study reported on the initial construction of a roasting measure. Roasting (a Black oral tradition) is a form of teasing that can be defined as making fun of someone in dyads or in groups of three or more people using clever metaphors (Foster, 1974; Smitherman, 1977, 2000). Although bullying is receiving much attention in news and scholarship, what is largely overlooked among developmental scholars that might provide insight into the bullying behavior of school-age youth is roasting. Roasting and verbal bullying are not identical, but the possibility of internalizing and externalizing problems having statistically significant associations with roasting, along with roasting possibly being an omitted variable in extant bully studies, skewing verbal bullying prevalence rates among adolescents, justifies the development of a roasting measure. Using items in an exploratory factor analysis that only loaded in interpretable Mokken scale analysis subscales yielded 5 roasting subscales. Internal consistency and construct validity supported the use and development of this measure. Implications for bully research, prevention and intervention programs, teacher education, and school policy are discussed.

Graduation Semester

2015-5

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78493

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Tyrone Rivers

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