Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire: Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance Among Portuguese Male Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the fit of the four-factor model of the 29-item and 12-item Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) on a sample of Portuguese male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV; N = 279) and to test the measurement invariance between sample type (forensic and non-forensic) and sentence type (prison and community). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) did not support the four-factor model of the BPAQ 29-item version. The four-factor model of the BPAQ–short form (BPAQ-SF) showed a good fit. Sufferable values for internal consistency and good values for convergent and discriminant validity were found. Cross-sentence measurement invariance using the present sample and cross-sample measurement invariance of the BPAQ-SF using a previously collected sample of students was established. Overall, our results support BPAQ-SF as a valuable brief and psychometrically reliable measure of aggression for use with both individuals from the community and IPV perpetrators with different sentences.

Keywords

aggression factorial structure intimate partner violence measurement invariance psychometric properties

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agulhas

Anciães

(2015). Casos práticos em psicologia forense: Enquadramento legal e avaliação pericial [Case studies in forensic psychology: Legal framework and expert assessment] (2nd ed.). Edições Sílabo.

Anderson

Bushman

(2002). Human aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 27–51. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135231

Arbuckle

J. L.

(2017). IBM SPSS AMOS 25 user’s guide. IBM Corp.

Archer

(2000). Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 126(5), 651–680. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.5.651

Archer

Kilpatrick

Bramwell

(1995). Comparison of two aggression inventories. Aggressive Behavior, 21(5), 371–380. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-2337(1995)21:5<371::AID-AB2480210506>3.0.CO;2-P

Birkley

Eckhardt

(2015). Anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and intimate partner violence perpetration: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 37, 40–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2015.01.002

Bryant

F. B.

Smith

B. D.

(2001). Refining the architecture of aggression: A measurement model for the Buss-Perry Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 35(2), 138–167. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.2000.2302

Buss

A. H.

(1961). The psychology of aggression. John Wiley.

Buss

A. H.

Perry

(1992). The Aggression Questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(3), 452–459. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.3.452

10.

Camlibel

D. A.

Can

S. H.

Hendy

H. M.

(2021). Predictors of violence reported by female and male inmates in Wisconsin state prisons. Women & Criminal Justice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2021.1892565

11.

Canavarro

M. C.

(2007). Inventário de Sintomas Psicopatológicos: Uma Revisão crítica dos estudos realizados em Portugal [Brief Symptom Inventory: A critical revision of the studies conducted in Portugal]. In Almeida

Simões

Machado

Goncalves

(Eds.), Avaliação psicológica. Instrumentos validados para a população portuguesa [Psychological assessment: Validated instruments for the Portuguese population] (Vol. III, pp. 305–331). Quarteto Editora.

12.

Cheung

G. W.

Rensvold

R. B.

(2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5

13.

Chung

J. E.

Song

Kim

Yee

Kim

J. H.

Lee

K. E.

Gwak

H. S.

(2019). Association between anxiety and aggression in adolescents: A cross-sectional study. BMC Pediatrics, 19, Article 115. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1479-6

14.

Clements

C. M.

Clauss

Casanave

Laajala

(2018). Aggression, psychopathology, and intimate partner violence perpetration: Does gender matter? Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 27(8), 902–921. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2017.1410750

15.

Coid

Ullrich

Bebbington

Fazel

Keers

(2016). Paranoid ideation and violence: Meta-analysis of individual subject data of 7 population surveys. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 42(4), 907–915. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw006

16.

Cruz

A. R.

Castro-Rodrigues

Rundle

Berrios-Torres

Gonçalves

R. A.

Barbosa

Stanford

M. S.

(2019). Versatility and exploratory psychometric properties of the impulsive/premeditated aggression scale (IPAS): A review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 47, 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.03.003

17.

Cunha

Gonçalves

R. A.

(2012). Análise confirmatória fatorial de uma versão portuguesa do Questionário de Agressividade de Buss–Perry [Confirmatory factor analysis of a Portuguese version of the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire]. Laboratório de Psicologia, 10(1), 3–17.

18.

Cunha

Gonçalves

R. A.

(2015). Efficacy assessment of an intervention program with batterers. Small Group Research, 46(4), 455–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496415592478

19.

Cunha

Gonçalves

R. A.

(2016). Severe and less severe intimate partner violence: From characterization to prediction. Violence and Victims, 31(2), 235–250. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-14-00033

20.

Cunha

Gonçalves

R. A.

(2017). Male perpetrators of intimate partner violence: A comparison between incarcerated and community offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(11), 3260–3277. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X17741070

21.

Dannisworo

C. A.

Adiningsih

H. B.

Christia

(2019). The moderating role of trait anger in the relationship between masculine stress and intimate partner violence. Psychological Research on Urban Society, 2(2), 106–117. https://doi.org/10.7454/proust.v2i1.71

22.

Demirtas-Madran

H. A.

(2012). The reliability and validity of the Buss-Perry aggression questionnaire (BAQ)–Turkish version. Turkish Journal of Psychiatry, 24(2), 124–129.

23.

Derogatis

L. R.

(1993). BSI: Brief Symptom Inventory: Administration, scoring and procedures manual. Natural Computers System.

24.

Diamond

P. M.

Magaletta

P. R.

(2006). The Short-Form Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ-SF): A validation study with federal offenders. Assessment, 13(3), 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191106287666

25.

Diamond

P. M.

Wang

E. W.

Buffington-Vollum

(2005). Factor structure of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) with mentally ill prisoners. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 32(5), 546–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854805278416

26.

Domino

(2006). Psychological testing: An introduction (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

27.

Eckhardt

C. I.

Barbour

K. A.

Stuart

G. L.

(1997). Anger and hostility in maritally violent men: Conceptual distinctions, measurement issues, and literature review. Clinical Psychology Review, 17(4), 333–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-7358(96)00003-7

28.

Fernandez-Montalvo

Echauri

J. A.

Martinez Azcarate

J. M.

(2013). Batterer men in prison and in court-referred treatment programs: What is the difference? The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 15(1), 315–322. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_SJOP.2012.v15.n1.37338

29.

Field

(2017). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). SAGE.

30.

Fossati

Maffei

Acquarini

Di Ceglie

(2003). Multigroup confirmatory component and factor analyses of the Italian version of the Aggression Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 19(1), 54–65. https://doi.org/10.1027//1015-5759.19.1.54

31.

Gallardo-Pujol

Kramp

García-Forero

Pérez-Ramírez

Andrés-Pueyo

(2006). Assessing aggressiveness quickly and efficiently: The Spanish adaptation of Aggression Questionnaire-Refined version. European Psychiatry, 21(7), 487–494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2006.02.002

32.

Garcia-Jimenez

J. J.

Godoy-Fernandez

Llor-Esteban

Ruiz-Hernandez

(2014). Differential profile in partner aggressors: Prison vs. Mandatory community intervention programs. The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, 6(2), 69–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpal.2014.06.003

33.

Gonçalves

R. A.

Cunha

Dias

A. R.

(2011). Avaliação psicológica de agressores conjugais [Psychological assessment of marital offenders]. In Matos

Gonçalves

R. A.

Machado

(Eds.), Manual de psicologia forense: Contextos, práticas e desafios [Manual of forensic psychology: Contexts, practices and challenges] (pp. 223–245). Psiquilibrios Edições.

34.

Graffar

(1956). Une méthode de classification sociale d’ echantillons de population [A method of social classification of population samples]. Courier, 6, 455–459.

35.

Hair

J. F.

Black

Babin

B. J.

Anderson

R. E.

(2010). Multivariate data analysis: A global perspective (7th ed.). Pearson.

36.

Harris

J. A.

(1995). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Aggression Questionnaire. Behavior, Research, and Theory, 33(8), 991–993. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(95)00038-Y

37.

Harris

J. A.

(1997). A further evaluation of the Aggression Questionnaire: Issues of validity and reliability. Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 35(11), 1047–1053. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(97)00064-8

38.

Helfritz

L. E.

Stanford

M. S.

Conklin

S. M.

Greve

K. W.

Villemarette-Pittman

N. R.

Houston

R. J.

(2006). Usefulness of self-report instruments in assessing men accused of domestic violence. The Psychological Record, 56(2), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395542

39.

Horn

McArdle

(1992). A practical and theoretical guide to measurement invariance in aging research. Experimental Aging Research, 18(3–4), 117–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610739208253916

40.

Hornsveld

R. H. J.

Muris

Kraaimaat

F. W.

Meesters

(2009). Psychometric properties of the Aggression Questionnaire in Dutch violent forensic psychiatric patients and secondary vocational students. Assessment, 16(2), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191108325894

41.

Kolla

N. J.

Meyer

J. H.

Bagby

R. M.

Brijmohan

(2016). Trait anger, physical aggression, and violent offending in antisocial and borderline personality disorders. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 62(1), 137–141. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.13234

42.

Machado

Goncalves

M. M.

Matos

(2007). Manual do Inventário de Violência Conjugal (I.V.C.) [Manual of the attitudes toward marital violence scale (ECVC) and of the marital violence inventory (IVC)]. Psiquilibrios Edições.

43.

Marôco

(2014). Análise de equações estruturais. Fundamentos teóricos. Software & aplicações [Structural equations analysis: Theoretical fundamentals. Software & applications]. ReportNumber.

44.

Martin

Zabala

Del-Monte

Graziani

Aizpurua

Barry

T. J.

Ricarte

(2019). Examining the relationship between impulsivity, aggression, and recidivism for prisoners with antisocial personality disorder. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 49, Article 101314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.07.009

45.

Maxwell

(2007). Development and preliminary validation of a Chinese version of the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire in a population of Hong Kong Chinese. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88(3), 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890701317004

46.

Morales-Vives

Codorniu-Raga

M. J.

Vigil-Colet

(2005). Características psicométricas de las versions reducidas del cuestionario de agresividade de Buss y Perry [Psychometric characteristics of reduced versions of the Aggressiveness Questionnaire of Buss and Perry]. Psicothema, 17(1), 96–100.

47.

Morren

Meesters

(2002). Validation of the Dutch version of the Aggression Questionnaire in adolescent male offenders. Aggressive Behavior, 28(2), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.90010

48.

Nakano

(2001). Psychometric evaluation on the Japanese adaptation of the Aggression Questionnaire. Behavioral Research Therapy, 39(7), 853–858. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(00)00057-7

49.

Netemeyer

R. G.

Bearden

W. O.

Sharma

(2003). Scaling procedures: Issues and applications. SAGE.

50.

Norlander

Eckhardt

(2005). Anger, hostility, and male perpetrators of intimate partner violence: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 25(2), 119–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2004.10.001

51.

Pechorro

Barroso

Poiares

Oliveira

J. P.

Torrealday

(2016). Validation of the Buss-Perry aggression questionnaire-short form among Portuguese juvenile delinquents. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 44, 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2015.08.033

52.

Pettersen

Nunes

K. L.

Cortoni

(2016). Does the factor structure of the aggression questionnaire hold for sexual offenders? Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43(6), 811–829. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854815618692

53.

Pettersen

Nunes

K. L.

Cortoni

(2018). The factor structure of the aggression questionnaire with violent offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(7), 1888–1905. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X17691242

54.

Prochazka

Agren

(2001). Aggression in the Swedish population measured with a new self-rating inventory: The Aggression Questionnaire-revised Swedish version (AQ-RSV). Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 55(1), 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/080394801750093661

55.

Ramirez

J. M.

Andreu

J. M.

Fujihara

(2001). Cultural and sex differences in aggression: A comparison between Japanese and Spanish students using two different inventories. Aggressive Behavior, 27(4), 313–322. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.1014

56.

Redondo

Peña

M. E.

Graña

J. L.

Andreu

J. M.

(2017). Psychometric properties of the aggression questionnaire: A replication in a sample of partner-assaultive men in psychological treatment. Psicothema, 29(4), 584–589. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2016.390

57.

Rubio-Garay

Carrasco

M. A.

Amor

P. J.

(2016). Aggression, anger and hostility: Evaluation of moral disengagement as a mediational process. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 57(2), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12270

58.

Ruddle

Pina

Vasquez

(2017). Domestic violence offending behaviors: A review of the literature examining childhood exposure, implicit theories, trait aggression and anger rumination as predictive factors. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 34, 154–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2017.01.016

59.

Schumacher

J. A.

Feldbau-Kohn

Slep

A. M. S.

Heyman

R. E.

(2001). Risk factors for male-to-female partner physical abuse. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 6(2–3), 281–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(00)00027-6

60.

Serin

R. C.

Gobeil

Preston

D. L.

(2009). Evaluation of persistently violent offender treatment programs. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 53(1), 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X07313985

61.

Simões

(1993). São os homens mais agressivos que as mulheres? [Are men more aggressive than women?]. Revista Portuguesa de Pedagogia, XXVII(3), 387–404.

62.

Stith

S. M.

Smith

D. B.

Penn

Ward

Tritt

(2004). Intimate partner physical abuse perpetration and victimization risk factors: A meta-analytic review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 10(1), 65–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2003.09.001

63.

Valdivia-Peralta

Fonseca-Pedrero

González-Bravo

Lemos-Giráldez

(2014). Psychometric properties of the AQ Aggression Scale in Chilean students. Psicothema, 26(1), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2013.84

64.

van der Put

C. E.

Stams

G. J. J. M.

Hoeve

Dekovic

Spanjaard

H. J. M.

van der Laan

P. H.

Barnoski

R. P

. (2012). Changes in the relative importance of dynamic risk factors for reoffending during adolescence. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 56(2), 296–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X11398462

65.

Vitoratou

Ntzoufras

Smyrnis

Stefanis

N. C.

(2009). Factorial composition of the aggression questionnaire: A multi-sample study in Greek adults. Psychiatry Research, 168(1), 32–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.01.016

66.

Williams

T. Y.

Boyd

J. C.

Cascardi

M. A.

Poythress

(1996). Factor structure and convergent validity of the Aggression Questionnaire in an offender population. Psychological Assessment, 8(4), 398–403. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.8.4.398