The Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire: Measurement Invariance and Reliability Among a School Sample of Portuguese Youths

Abstract

Aggression is an important risk factor for various forms of problem behaviors in adolescence, and research has often distinguished between reactive and proactive forms of aggression. The aim of the present study was to compare the psychometric properties (i.e., structural invariance, internal consistency, and criterion validity) of the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) between males and females among a mixed-gender school sample of 782 Portuguese youth (M = 15.87 years, SD = 1.72). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a two-factor first-order structure obtained the best fit and cross-gender measurement invariance was demonstrated after excluding item 21. The Portuguese version of the RPQ demonstrated generally adequate psychometric properties of internal consistency measured by Cronbach's alpha and omega coefficient, convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and known-groups validity. Findings are discussed in terms of the use of the RPQ with male and female youths.

Short Form of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents among community and institutionalized Portuguese youths

“…Lastly, our fifth hypothesis was confirmed, as girls reported significantly more SA than boys. As in other studies, girls report higher scores than boys on the SAS-A-SF total, SAS-A-SF FNE, and SAS-A-SF SAD-New, but no gender differences on the SAD-Gen subscale ( La Greca & López, 1998 ; Olivares et al, 2005; Pechorro et al, 2017 , Storch et al, 2004 ). These gender differences have been extensively reported in the literature ( Merikangas et al, 2010 ) and are consistent with the observed phenomenon of females being more vulnerable to affective disorders than males (e.g., Seney & Sibille, 2014 ).…”

“…Higher scores indicate higher levels of aggression. The Portuguese validation of the RPQ ( Pechorro, Ayala-Nunes, Khan, & Nunes, 2017 ) was used. Internal consistency for the present study was α=.92.…”

Examining the Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children in a Diverse Sample of Trauma-Exposed Adolescents

“…Broader measures of trauma symptoms akin to the TSCC (e.g., Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) also show mixed evidence of gender invariance (Dovran et al, 2013;Forde et al, 2012). Other trauma-related constructs that overlap with TSCC subscales, including depression, anxiety, dissociation, and aggression, have demonstrated gender invariance in some samples of children and adolescents (Carle et al, 2007;Donnelly et al, 2019;Gover, 2004;Kerig et al, 2016;Lowe, 2015) but not others (McNaughton Reyes et al, 2019;Ohannessian et al, 2017;Pechorro et al, 2018;van Beek et al, 2012).…”

French version of reactive-proactive aggression questionnaire: psychometric properties in adolescents

“…In order to assess both dimensions of aggression, Raine and colleagues [3] developed the reactive and proactive aggression questionnaire (RPQ), a 23-item self-report questionnaire composed of a reactive aggression dimension and a proactive aggression dimension. Up to now, the RPQ has demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties (i.e., factorial structure, internal consistency, construct validity) in several studies using the original English version [3], or translations into Dutch, Italian, Portuguese or Turkish [14][15][16][17][18][19]. Moreover, Cima et al [14] observed different relationships between the two forms of aggression and impulsivity (more strongly related to the reactive form of aggression) and psychopathic traits (more strongly related to the proactive form of aggression).…”