Bullying scales in educational contexts :A systematic review of two decades of research in Iran

Bullying is a serious and worrisome problem that has been on the rise all over the world in recent years. However, there are inconsistent results in the definition, measurement, and prevalence of bullying. The current study aimed to review traditional bullying and cyberbullying scales in educational contexts. Therefore, in a systematic review study based on the PRISMA, quantitative research on bullying published from 2003 to 2023 through online databases  (Magiran, Noormags, SID) using a combination of the keywords including "bullying" or "aggression" or "harassment" and "scale" or "questionnaire" or "instrument" were searched. Out of 300 published articles, 25 studies were extracted based on the inclusion criteria in the categories of general characteristics, conceptualization of bullying, study sample characteristics, sample size, time frame, subscales, reliability, and validity. The results indicated a great variety in the conceptualization of the bullying construct in the literature. In addition, only 11 studies followed the recommended guidelines on the development and validation of instruments. Although most bullying instruments reported moderate to high reliability, a significant number of validity indices were not measured. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of a precise and standardized definition of bullying, which can be the most important factor in measuring bullying behaviors.