Development of Anger Regulation Scale for Adolescents (ARS-A): Validity and Reliability Studies

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to develop an Anger Regulation Scale for Adolescents (ARS-A), and investigate its validity, and reliability for Turkish adolescents.

Method: The participants were 630 secondary school students from 6th to 8th grade. Data were collected from four different sample groups attending the school. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis for ARS-A were employed to examine validity of the scale. In order to check the criterion-related validity of ARS-A, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory was used. Convergent and differential reliability of the scale was examined, and parallel analysis was performed to determine number of factors of the scale. To test the reliability of the scale, Composite reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, item-total correlation values and test-retest values were computed.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis yielded a three factor solution explaining 50.17% of variance. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis performed with 18 items of ARS-A supported the three-factor solution and the model had good fit values. Cronbach's alpha values indicating internal dysfunctional anger regulation subdimensions, were determined as 0.77 and as 0.78 for functional anger regulation and 0.76 for external-dysfunctional anger regulation subdimensions. The scale was applied to 97 students with two weeks' interval, and test-retest reliability values were determined as r=0.74 for internal dysfunctional anger regulation, r=0.62 for both external dysfunctional anger regulation and functional anger regulation subdimensions.

Conclusion: The present study indicates that the Anger Regulation Scale for Adolescents (ARS-A) is a valid and reliable instrument to asses anger regulation strategies in Turkish adolescents.