Development of Self-report Proactive and Reactive Aggressiveness Scales for University students (SPRAS-U): Relationship with aggressive behavior

Abstract

The present article reports development of the Self-report Proactive & Reactive Aggressiveness Scales for University students (SPRAS-U), and an examination of its reliability and validity. In addition, associations among the subscales of the instrument and physical, verbal, and relational aggressive behavior were investigated. The original version of the instrument was comprised of 75 items in 9 subscales (4 subscales assessing proactive aggressiveness and 5 assessing reactive aggressiveness). Students (iV = 616; 294 men, 322 women) at 1 junior college and 5 universities completed 1 of 2 types of questionnaires. The results of exploratory factor analysis of their responses identified 9 hypothetical factors. These 9 subscales had adequate reliability (α coefficients above .70). Most of the reactive aggressiveness subscales were moderately positively correlated with hostility, irritability, duration of anger, and retaliatory intent, whereas most of the proactive aggressiveness subscales were moderately positively correlated with the primary psychopathy and domination subscales of the Functional Aggression Scale (FAS), and significantly negatively correlated with emotional empathy. These relationships demonstrate the concurrent validity of the Self-report Proactive & Reactive Aggressiveness Scales for University students. Multiple regression analysis indicated significant associations between physical aggression and, mainly, the reactive aggressiveness subscales, between verbal aggression and, mainly, the proactive aggressiveness subscales, and between relational aggression and both the reactive and proactive aggressiveness subscales.