Abstract
Aggression in adolescence may assume different forms and functions, and is often associated with maladjustment. To adequately assess aggression in adolescence, instruments need to evaluate both its forms and its functions, as is the case with the Peer Conflict Scale. This research presents and evaluates the Portuguese version of this instrument, and evaluates levels of aggression in an adolescent community sample (n = 785; 63.6 % female, mean age of 15.97 years old). The four factor structure originally proposed for the instrument (i.e. proactive overt, reactive overt, proactive relational and reactive relational aggression) represented a satisfactory solution for the data, and for both girls and boys. Results also have shown adequate reliability. Regarding levels of aggression, boys reported being overall more aggressive than girls. When aggression is impulsive/ reactive, both boys and girls practice its overt form. It is only when the aggression is pondered upon (proactive) that boys and girls chose to use different forms of aggression. Accurately evaluating different forms and functions of aggression has implications for designing, implementing and evaluating adequate and tailored interventions.
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Notes
This represents a higher percentage than that of the national statistics for Portugal. However, multi-group analysis on the four factor measurement model of the PCS (Marsee et al. 2011) proved that it is invariant across students with or without history of grade retention; the adequacy of this measurement model is not dependent on this particular characteristic of the present sample.
Socioeconomic status was assigned according to parents’ profession, and taking into account the Portuguese profession classification. Examples of professions in the high socioeconomic status groups are judges, higher education professors, or M.D.s; in the medium socioeconomic status group are included nurses, psychologists, or school teachers; in the low socioeconomic status group are included farmers, cleaning staff, or undifferentiated workers (Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional 1994).
The Portuguese version of the Peer Conflict Scale may be obtained by contact with the first author.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by a research scholarship by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal and the European Social Fund (SFRH / BPD / 72299 / 2010).
Conflict of Interest
None of the authors have academic, personal or political relationships with the participants or participating institutions. No financial, employment, consultancies or honoraria were involved in the relationships between participants or participating institutions and the research team. The authors have no potential conflict of interest pertaining to this submission to Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment.
Experiment Participants
Ethical standards for investigations involving human participants were always considered. The procedure for this investigation was approved by the appropriate institutional review committees and responsible government agency. Human participants or their legal representatives gave informed consent to participating in this investigation.
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Vagos, P., Rijo, D., Santos, I.M. et al. Forms and Functions of Aggression in Adolescents: Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Peer Conflict Scale. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 36, 570–579 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-014-9421-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-014-9421-6