Aggression in the general Swedish population, measured with a new self-rating inventory: The Aggression Questionnaire--revised Swedish version (AQ-RSV)

Nord J Psychiatry. 2001;55(1):17-23. doi: 10.1080/080394801750093661.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to develop a Swedish self-rating instrument for clinical aggression research based on the American Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), which measures physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. To test this adapted Aggression Questionnaire--revised Swedish version (AQ-RSV), it was mailed to 781 randomly selected individuals, aged 20-40 year. A total of 497 (64%) evaluable AQ-RSV inventories were obtained and analyzed statistically. Drop-out analysis showed that non-responders were most often male and significantly older than responders. Among the responders, AQ-RSV showed significant sex differences in all aggression subscales except Hostility. Aggression was found to vary with age, geographical region, and size of home community. The AQ and the AQ-RSV were comparable in correlations between the four aggression subscales and in alpha coefficients, which indicated considerable internal consistency. Development of the aggression-measuring instrument for Swedish conditions is important not only to study subtraits of aggression but to enable analyses of their relationships to neurobiological and psychiatric variables.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aggression / psychology*
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Personality Inventory / statistics & numerical data*
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Self-Assessment
  • Sweden
  • United States