Development, reliability, and validity of the children's aggression scale-parent version.
OBJECTIVE
To provide preliminary psychometric data on the Children's Aggression Scale-Parent Version (CAS-P), which assesses severity, frequency, pervasiveness, and diversity of aggressive, as distinct from nonaggressive, disruptive behaviors.


METHODS
The scale has 33 items representing five domains: Verbal Aggression, Aggression Against Objects and Animals, Provoked Physical Aggression, Unprovoked Physical Aggression, and Use of Weapons. The CAS-P was completed for 73 clinically referred children. Validity was evaluated dimensionally by examining the relationship of CAS-P scores to other parent and teacher rating scales, and categorically by comparing scores of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) alone, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder.


RESULTS
The scale as a whole had excellent internal consistency (alpha = .93). Children with conduct disorder were rated significantly higher than those with oppositional defiant disorder, who were rated significantly higher than those with ADHD alone. The CAS-P did not distinguish clinical control children from those with ADHD only. Correlations with other rating scales provide further support for the validity of the CAS-P.


CONCLUSIONS
The CAS-P assesses distinct components of aggressive behavior and may fill a gap in that it distinguishes among various types and severity of aggressive behaviors, and the settings in which they take place.
Halperin
Jeffrey M
JM
Department of Psychology, Queens College of the City University of New York, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Flushing 11367, USA. jeffrey_halperin@qc.edu
McKay
Kathleen E
KE
Newcorn
Jeffrey H
JH
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results