Developing a valid version of an inventory to measure anger in mexican adolescents of middle school level: The ML-STAXI-MS

Abstract

The goals were to develop a valid version of the Multicultural Latin American Inventory of Anger Expression and Hostility (ML-STAXI) for middle school Mexican youth (ML-STAXI-MS) and to test a new Questionnaire about Anger Expression with Physical Aggression (QAEPA). Five hundred and four adolescents (258 males, 246 females); (Mage = 13.75, SD = 1.01) from a public school in Mexico City completed both instruments. Exploratory factor analysis yielded seven factors for the ML-STAXI-MS. Four were identical (desire to express anger physically and verbally, angry feelings, temperament, and reaction) to those obtained in other Mexican samples, and three factors (anger-out and anger control-in and -out) were similar to other studies with the ML-STAXI. No anger-in factor was found. Alpha reliabilities ranged from .75 to .91. The QAEPA yielded a 4-item factor (α = .72) of physical aggressive anger expression (e.g., hitting).