Factorial composition of the Aggression Questionnaire: a multi-sample study in Greek adults

Adverse childhood experience and young adult's problematic Internet use: The role of hostility and loneliness

BACKGROUND

Few studies have explored the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and problematic Internet use (PIU) during young adulthood. Moreover, even fewer studies have explored the roles of loneliness (social and emotional) and hostility in this relationship.

METHODS

This study used data from the Taiwan Youth Project (2011-2017). The analytical sample included 1885 participants (mean age = 31.3 years). PIU was measured using the short form of Chen's Internet Addiction Scale (2017). ACEs were assessed at the baseline of the adolescent phase (mean age = 14.3 years); this indicator has undergone recent revision. Hostility (three items from the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) and loneliness (six items from the De Jong Gierveld scale) were measured in 2011 and 2014, respectively.

RESULTS

ACEs were associated with hostility and loneliness (emotional and social). Additionally, hostility (β = 0.62, p < .01) and emotional loneliness (β = 0.44, p < .01) were significantly associated with PIU. Most mediating paths (e.g., ACE → hostility → PIU) were significant, based on the bootstrapping results.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that ACEs have a long-term shadow effect on PIU in young adults. ACEs show an indirect association with PIU through both hostility and loneliness, as well as involving the relationship between them.

Psychosocial factors as predictors of aggressive behaviors among primary school learners

The study investigated psychosocial factors as predictors of aggressive behaviors among primary school learners in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study used a survey research design. All public primary school learners in Ekiti State formed the target population. A sample size of one thousand three hundred and fifty (1350) respondents was selected using a multistage sampling procedure, consisting of 641 males (47.5%) and 709 females (52.5%), ages 9-13 years, who participated in the study. A self-report instrument tagged "Learners' Aggressive Behaviours Questionnaire" (α indexes of .81, .70, .77, and .84 for the four components respectively) was used for data collection. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis at a 5% level of significance. The empirical findings revealed that parenting styles, peer influence, and self-control significantly predicted learners' aggressive behavior. Recommendations for curbing aggressive behavior among learners were highlighted.

Psychiatric and non-psychiatric population vulnerabilities in time of a crisis: the unsuspected aggression factor

OBJECTIVES

In March 2020, France faced a health crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak that, like previous infectious disease crises, involved high psychological and emotional stress, a series of factors that influenced the ongoing mental health crisis.

METHODS

We recruited 384 respondents to complete an online questionnaire during the second month of isolation: 176 psychotherapy recipients (68 were currently attending psychiatric care) and 208 healthy controls. We measured demographic characteristics, impulsivity, aggression, hopelessness, suicidal risk, and the global level of anxiety and depression in order to estimate potential discrepancies in clinical measures across these populations.

RESULTS

Our results indicate that the group currently undergoing psychiatric care was prone to loneliness and social isolation. Regarding clinical and nonclinical population, there were differences in suicidal risk, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness but mainly in aggression. Regression analysis also demonstrated that aggression surprisingly influenced anxiety levels. Patients undergoing therapy compared with patients who were not displayed differences only in suicidal risk, anxiety, and hopelessness, with those undergoing therapy having higher scores. The outpatient group undergoing therapy had a significantly lower level of impulsivity. Moreover, the regression to predict anxiety and depression levels from correlated factors highlighted the potentially heightened role of aggression in predicting anxiety in the clinical group.

CONCLUSION

New research into stress reactions should assess other clinical signals, such as aggression, and examine preventive mental health interventions in times of crisis.

Facial Emotion Perceptual Tendency in Violent and Non-violent Offenders

All three authors share equal authorship in this paper.Emotion perception has a vital influence on social interaction. Previous studies discussed mainly the relationship between facial emotion perception and aggressive behavior from the perspective of hostile attributional bias and the impaired violence inhibition mechanism. The present study aims to provide new evidence of different emotion perception patterns between the violent and non-violent criminal samples through a new indicator of the facial emotion recognition test, Facial Emotion Perception Tendency (FEPT), calculated by counting the times a participant recognizes a set of emotional stimuli as a particular specific emotion, and to further examine the association between aggressive behaviors and FEPT. 101 violent and 171 non-violent offenders, as well as 81 non-offending control participants, were recruited to complete the emotion recognition task with morphed stimuli (Study 1). We further recruited 62 non-offending healthy male participants to finish the Buss -Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) after the emotion recognition task in Study 2. Both non-violent and violent offenders were significantly lower in overall accuracy of emotion recognition and disgust FEPT, but higher in happy FEPT, than non-offending healthy controls. Non-violent offenders had significantly lower fear FEPT than violent offenders, and had higher anger FEPT than non-offending controls. The results also revealed that the level of physical aggression was positively correlated with fear FEPT, while negatively correlated with anger FEPT. The current study demonstrated that FEPT was associated with aggressive behavior and implies the importance of improving the emotion decoding ability of offenders. Also, the concept "FEPT" proposed in this study is of significance for further exploration of how individuals' tendency to perceiving a particular emotion can be correlated with social behaviors.

Life With Corona: Increased Gender Differences in Aggression and Depression Symptoms Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Burden in Germany

Gender differences (GD) in mental health have come under renewed scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. While rapidly emerging evidence indicates a deterioration of mental health in general, it remains unknown whether the pandemic will have an impact on GD in mental health. To this end, we investigate the association of the pandemic and its countermeasures affecting everyday life, labor, and households with changes in GD in aggression, anxiety, depression, and the somatic symptom burden. We analyze cross-sectional data from 10,979 individuals who live in Germany and who responded to the online survey "Life with Corona" between October 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. We estimate interaction effects from generalized linear models. The analyses reveal no pre-existing GD in aggression but exposure to COVID-19 and COVID-19 countermeasures is associated with sharper increases in aggression in men than in women. GD in anxiety decreased among participants with children in the household (with men becoming more anxious). We also observe pre-existing and increasing GD with regards to the severity of depression, with women presenting a larger increase in symptoms during the hard lockdown or with increasing stringency. In contrast to anxiety, GD in depression increased among participants who lived without children (women > men), but decreased for individuals who lived with children; here, men converged to the levels of depression presented by women. Finally, GD in somatic symptoms decreased during the hard lockdown (but not with higher stringency), with men showing a sharper increase in symptoms, especially when they lived with children or alone. Taken together, the findings indicate an increase in GD in mental health as the pandemic unfolded in Germany, with rising female vulnerability to depression and increasing male aggression. The combination of these two trends further suggests a worrying mental health situation for singles and families. Our results have important policy implications for the German health system and public health policy. This public health challenge requires addressing the rising burden of pandemic-related mental health challenges and the distribution of this burden between women and men, within families and for individuals who live alone.

Aggression Amongst Outpatients With Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses in a Tertiary Mental Health Institution

Aims: Aggression is defined as "any behavior intended to cause physical, emotional, or psychological harm to another." The aims of the current study were to (i) examine underlying factor structure of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) and (ii) explore socio-demographic and clinical correlates (symptom severity, substance use and alcohol use) among patients with schizophrenia and related psychoses in a multi-ethnic Asian population. Methods: Data collected from 397 participants who were seeking outpatient treatment for schizophrenia and related psychoses at a tertiary psychiatric hospital were included in the analyses. BPAQ, a 29-item, four-factor instrument that measures physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility was used to assess aggression. Data on socio-demographic variables, age of onset of illness, drug use, alcohol use and symptom severity were also collected. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to establish the underlying factor structure of the BPAQ. Multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine socio-demographic and clinical correlates of the BPAQ factors. Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.2 years (SD = 10.9, range: 21-65). Factor structure obtained from the CFA indicated that a higher order four-factor solution had an acceptable fit to the observed data (WLSMV χ² = 1,025.35, df = 320, RMSEA = 0.07, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.05). Females had lower physical aggression and hostility scores as compared to males. Those with lower education had higher physical aggression scores as compared to those with higher education. Participants who received a diagnosis after the age of 30 years had higher physical aggression and anger scores as compared to those who received a diagnosis at or before 20 years of age. Symptom severity was positively associated with higher BPAQ scores. Conclusion: The study findings demonstrated high internal consistency and applicable measurement factor structure of BPAQ in this study sample, making it an appropriate questionnaire for assessing aggressive behavior in this population. We also identified socio-demographic and clinical factors that were associated with aggression in patients with schizophrenia and related psychoses.

Psychiatric diagnosis, gender, aggression, and mode of attempt in patients with single versus repeated suicide attempts

There is evidence that patients with multiple suicide attempts in their history are at greater risk to repeat attempt and eventually die by suicide compared to those with a single attempt. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore possible differences in clinical characteristics between patients with a single attempt and patients with repeated attempts. Two hundred thirty one patients hospitalised in psychiatric department after suicide attempt were studied. Comparisons were made in relation to age, gender, psychiatric diagnosis, aggression, depression severity, suicide intent and mode of attempt. Highest frequencies of patients with repeated attempts were found for bipolar disorder (69%) and lowest for adjustment/personality disorders (39%). In patients with repeated attempts, female gender was associated with non-violent attempt mode. Depressive symptomatology was higher in patients with repeated attempts among females. In patients with depression those with repeated attempts were younger than patients with single attempt. In patients with mood disorders, total aggression and hostility scores were higher in females with repeated attempts but not in males. Psychiatric diagnosis, gender and attempt mode are features that differentiate patients with single and repeated attempts and should be considered to identify patients at increased risk to repeat attempt and design effective prevention interventions.

Self-esteem and aggression in women: differences between female prisoners and women without criminal records

Contradictory findings have been reported regarding the association between self-esteem and aggression. Most studies have dealt with non-criminal populations. This study aimed to explore the relationship between self-esteem and aggression and investigate possible differences in self-esteem and aggression between female inmates and women without criminal records (non-criminals) in the prefecture of Attica, Greece. One hundred fifty-seven female inmates in the Attica's Korydallos Female Prison and 150 non-criminals from Attica's general population completed the Buss & Perry Aggression Questionnaire and Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale between February 2012 and April 2014. Lower self-esteem was associated with higher aggression among women independent of criminality. Self-esteem was lower in inmates (Mean = 18.06, SD = 6.19) than in non-criminals (Mean = 21.65, SD = 4.90, p < .001). Female prisoners presented higher aggression than non-criminals (unadjusted Mean = 78.40, SD = 23.60 versus Mean = 68.82, SD = 14.95, p < .001). However, after adjusting for age, education and self-esteem, this difference was no longer statistically significant (p = .127). Further studies, especially in female offenders, should be conducted to broaden our understanding of female aggression with a view to developing and promoting focused therapeutic procedures.

Narcissism but Not Criminality Is Associated With Aggression in Women: A Study Among Female Prisoners and Women Without a Criminal Record

Aggression has drawn research attention during the past decades. It remains unclear how self-esteem, self-perception, narcissism and certain socio-demographic factors impact the course of aggression. Female aggression is considered to differ in its origins and is understudied. Only few studies have attempted to examine the aforementioned variables among females, while none of them included a comparison between delinquent and non-delinquent individuals. The present study examines the effect of self-esteem, self-perception, narcissism, and socio-demographic factors on aggression among female inmates and women without criminal record (non-delinquents). One hundred fifty-seven female inmates in the Attica's Korydallos Female Prison and 150 women with no criminal record were assessed with Buss & Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale, Narcissistic Personality Inventory-40 and the Self-Perception Profile for Adults. When inmates were compared to non-delinquent women, it emerged that higher aggression could be independently predicted by higher levels of narcissistic personality traits and sociability, as well as lower age, lower education, lower self-esteem, and lower levels of self-perception items including nurturance, job competence and athletic abilities. Aggression was not predicted by the participants' group (inmates vs. non-delinquents). Within female inmates, independently of the type of their offense (convicted for violent vs. non-violent crimes), it was found that lower job competence, higher narcissistic personality traits and a history of childhood maltreatment could predict higher aggression. Our results support the notion that female aggression differs from male and highlight the significant parameters that may predict aggression either among women (inmates and non-delinquent women) or among female inmates (violent or non-violent crimes). It is the presence of narcissistic traits which predict aggression rather than criminality in general, including violent and non-violent crimes.

Effect of the interaction between oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (rs53576) and stressful life events on aggression in Chinese Han adolescents

OBJECTIVES

Accumulating evidence suggests that stressful life events are associated with increased risk for aggressive behavior in adolescents; however, aggressive reactions to life stressors exhibit large individual differences. The present study sought to examine whether the interaction between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP [rs53576]) within the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and stressful life events is related to aggression in Chinese Han adolescents.

METHODS

A total of 197 Chinese Han adolescents (14-17 years of age) were included in this study. Aggression was assessed using the 12-item short version of Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Stressful life events during the past 12 months were assessed using the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist. Genomic DNA was extracted from saliva and buccal cells from each individual.

RESULTS

Multivariate analysis of variance yielded a significant interaction between OXTR rs53576 SNP and life stress (F = 2.449, p = 0.043, partial η2 = 0.051) and of sex × SNP × life stress (F = 3.144, p = 0.016, partial η2 = 0.064). High life stress during the past 12 months was associated with high levels of physical aggression and hostility in OXTR rs53576 homozygous AA adolescents but not in G-carrier adolescents. In boys, homozygous AA individuals in the high life stress group reported significantly higher levels of physical aggression than participants in the other three groups; the interaction, however, was not significant in girls.

CONCLUSIONS

This study, which analyzed a specific gene-environment interaction, demonstrated that AA OXTR rs53576 homozygosity may correlate with higher levels of aggression under high life stress conditions with a sample of healthy Chinese Han adolescents. These findings promote the etiological understanding of adolescent aggression, highlighting the complex effect of stressful life events on aggression, and adding evidence supporting the relationship between the oxytocin system and aggressive behavior in adolescents.

The Swedish version of the Insomnia Severity Index: Factor structure analysis and psychometric properties in chronic pain patients

Objective

Insomnia is the most commonly diagnosed comorbidity disorder among patients with chronic pain. This circumstance requests brief and valid instruments for screening insomnia in epidemiological studies. The main object of this study was to assess the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Swedish version of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The ISI is a short instrument designed to measure clinical insomnia and one of the most common used scales both in clinical and research practice. However there is no study in Sweden that guarantees neither its factor structure nor its feasibility in chronic pain patients. We further examined the measurement invariance property of the ISI across the two sexes.

Methods

The ISI was administered to 836 (269 men and 567 women) chronic pain patients from the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation. This study used demographic data, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Mental Summary Component (MSC) of the Health Survey (SF-36) and the item 7 from Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). The sample was divided into two random halves: exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed in the first sample (N1 = 334, 40%) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the second half of the sample (N2 = 502, 60%). The measurement and structural invariance of the proposed structure (4-item version) between the two sexes as well as reliability and validity indexes were further assessed.

Results

Exploratory factor analysis using the principal axis factoring method generated one global factor structure for the ISI, explaining 63.1% of the total variance. The one factor solution was stable between the two sexes. Principal component analysis was also applied and indicated almost identical results. The structure was further assessed by CFA, resulting in an adequate fit only after omitting three items. The difference on structural and measurement invariance in the loadings by participants’ sex was not significant (Δχ 2 = 10.6; df = 3; p = .69 and Δχ 2 = 2.86; df = 3; p = 41 respectively). The shorter version four-item Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-4) was analysed further. The Chronbach’s alpha for the global ISI-4 score was 0.88. The construct validity of the ISI-4 was also supported by the, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Mental Summary Component of quality of life and quality of sleep data. Pain intensity was significantly associated with the ISI-4 score (beta = .29, p < 001) whereas no significant correlation between four-item Insomnia Severity Index score and age was observed (p > 05).

Conclusions and implications

Although short, the four-item Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-4) version seemed to effectively assess insomnia in chronic pain patients. An important clinical implication is that the four-item Swedish Insomnia Severity Index can be used in chronic pain cohorts when screening for insomnia problems. Its measurement and structural invariance property across the two sexes shows that the ISI-4 is a valid measure of the insomnia across groups of chronic patients. Our results also suggest its utility both in pain clinical practice and research purposes.

Trait aggression in two representative U.S. surveys: Testing the generalizability of college samples

Aggression research often relies upon convenient samples with unknown generalizability to populations of interest, potentially threatening external validity. This article details the measurement properties of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire Short Form (BPAQ-SF) and its subscales in two nationally representative U.S. samples (N = 924) and a concurrent study with U.S. college students (N = 384). The results provide useful benchmarks for generalizing BPAQ-SF results from convenient samples to U.S. adults, including distributions, reliability, and factor structure. The results also confirm basic relationships between trait aggression and key social and demographic variables such as sex, age, and socioeconomic status while establishing convergent validity with violent political attitudes. Results from the national studies closely align with those from the student sample, providing reasonable support for generalizing trait aggression elements to U.S. adults. Aggr. Behav. Aggr. Behav. 42:171-188, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Temperament and character dimensions assessed in general population, in individuals with psychoactive substance dependence and in young male conscripts

BACKGROUND

In this work we consider Cloninger's psychobiological model, which measures two dimensions of personality: character and temperament. Temperament refers to the biological basis of personality and its characteristics, while character refers to an individual's attitudes towards own self, towards humanity and as part of the universe.

METHODS

The Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised-140 (TCI-R-140) was administered to 3 divergent samples: a general population sample, a sample of male conscripts and a sample of individuals attending a substance abuse rehabilitation programme. Score differences among the three samples were assessed controlling for age and gender and reliability coefficients are reported. The latent structure was studied in all samples, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods (EFA and CFA respectively).

RESULTS

The proposed structure was partially replicated via EFA. CFA however indicated less than satisfactory fit, as in previously reported results. To improve the fit, the path diagram was augmented to account for multiple factor complexity, as suggested by the EFA results in all samples. While retaining the original seven-factor structure, the augmented model provided adequate fit. The consistency of the inventory was satisfactory in all samples. Evidence for the construct validity was found in relation to aggression.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to conclude in adequate fit, after allowing for the indicators to load on more than one factor within each dimension. While cross-national differences apply, our results were similar (when comparable) with previously reported ones in the literature.

A cross-cultural examination of the Aggression Questionnaire-Short Form among Egyptian and Omani adolescents

The psychometric properties of an Arabic version of the Aggression Questionnaire-Short Form (AQ-SF) were examined in 2 samples of Egyptian and Omani adolescents. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that the 4-factor model had adequate fit to the data of both samples, whereas the unidimensional and hierarchical models did not. Multigroup CFAs revealed culture invariance for the AQ-SF 4-factor model when the 2 samples were compared for each gender. The analysis also revealed gender invariance for the AQ-SF 4-factor model within the Omani sample. However, the analysis showed partial gender invariance for the AQ-SF 4-factor model within the Egyptian sample. A latent mean analysis showed consistent gender differences on Physical Aggression in the male direction when males and females were compared across and within both samples. The AQ-SF correlated positively and significantly with peer nominations but did not correlate with a measure of social desirability.