The Multidimensional Anger Inventory: Reliability and Factor Structure in an Inmate Sample

Abstract

The present study examined the item factor structure and reliability of the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI) with 372 male inmates referred for assessment. Examination of the first rotated principal component and item-remainder correlations suggested that five items were not measuring the same content as the other 32 items. After deletion of these five items, a two-factor solution was rotated to a varimax criterion. These two factors reflect anger arousal/experience and range of anger-eliciting interpersonal situations, with coefficient alpha reliabilities of .90 and .85, respectively. The full scale summary score had a coefficient alpha reliability of .93. Rotated factor solutions beyond two were poorly defined perhaps because the MAI items were not sufficiently representative for an offender population.

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