Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives

Abstract

The Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives scale is a critical psychological scale designed to quantify the cognitive processes underlying youth violence. This instrument explicitly assesses an individual’s degree of endorsement for beliefs that justify or promote the use of aggression, alongside their willingness to utilize nonviolent strategies for resolving conflicts. It operates on the principle that aggressive behavior is often rooted in cognitive distortions, such as the belief that violence is necessary, effective, or a sign of strength.

The scale’s primary utility lies in evaluating the effectiveness of school-based violence prevention initiatives, notably the Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP) program. By measuring shifts in attitudes over time, researchers and practitioners can quantify how well interventions succeed in promoting constructive conflict resolution skills, communication, and negotiation as viable alternatives to physical or verbal hostility.

Keywords

Aggression, Beliefs, Youth Violence, Nonviolent Strategies, Middle School, Attitude Assessment, Conflict Resolution, RIPP, Psychological Scale, Adolescent Psychology, Likert Scale, Cognitive Distortions

Authors

Farrell AD, Meyer AL, White KS, Multisite Violence Prevention Project

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives scale is to provide a quantitative measure of adolescent attitudes toward conflict. This measure focuses on two complementary dimensions: the extent to which youth hold beliefs that justify or promote aggression, and conversely, their level of support for employing peaceful and nonviolent methods when faced with interpersonal conflict. This dual assessment is crucial for effective prevention research.

Developed specifically within the context of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project, the scale serves as a standardized outcome tool to evaluate programmatic impact. It helps researchers gauge attitude shifts following interventions aimed at reducing violence among urban adolescents. High scores on the aggression subscale indicate a greater risk profile and need for intervention, while high scores on the nonviolent strategies subscale confirm the successful internalization of preventative social skills training.

Construct

The instrument is structured to measure two theoretically distinct, yet psychologically related, constructs essential for understanding and predicting youth violence:

• Beliefs about Aggression: This factor captures the respondent’s cognitive justifications for using aggression. Items target beliefs that suggest aggression is necessary (e.g., self-defense myths), functional (e.g., gaining power or control), or excusable (e.g., responding to overwhelming anger). A strong endorsement of these beliefs is hypothesized to correlate positively with observed aggressive behavior.

• Use of Nonviolent Strategies: This subscale assesses the respondent’s positive attitude toward and stated intent to use peaceful alternatives, such as mediation, negotiation, ignoring provocation, or direct communication. This construct reflects the successful adoption of constructive conflict resolution techniques as viable alternatives to violence.

Validity

While detailed criterion and construct validity metrics are typically found in the primary academic literature (Farrell et al., 2001), the scale demonstrates strong face validity and content validity. Its inclusion in major public health compendiums and its successful application in large-scale evaluations, such as the RIPP study, confirm that its items accurately reflect the cognitive distortions and pro-violence attitudes that effective violence prevention curricula aim to modify.

A key aspect of the scale’s validity is its utility as a measure of change. It has been repeatedly shown to successfully detect significant attitudinal shifts resulting from structured interventions. Furthermore, the clear theoretical separation into two conceptually opposing subscales (pro-aggression versus pro-nonviolence) strongly supports its underlying theoretical framework and construct validity.

Reliability

The reliability of the Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives scale is affirmed by its consistent and rigorous use across various peer-reviewed research settings, most notably the Multisite Violence Prevention Project led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This consistency suggests high methodological quality typical of instruments used in adolescent psychological assessment.

Although specific internal consistency coefficients, such as Cronbach’s alpha, are not included in the scale description itself, the standardized 4-point Likert response format and the clear, theoretically grounded subscale groupings contribute to its expected reliability. Researchers seeking detailed reliability statistics should consult the published findings of Farrell et al. (2001) and associated CDC compendiums.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the instrument is supported by theoretical grouping and empirical factor analysis, which firmly establishes two distinct core factors or subscales. This two-factor model ensures that the scale independently measures both the inclination toward aggressive behavior and the capacity to utilize peaceful alternatives, allowing for a highly nuanced assessment of intervention efficacy.

The item loadings are clearly split between the two constructs, which are scored and analyzed separately:

• Factor 1: Beliefs about Aggression (Items 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, and 12).

• Factor 2: Use of Nonviolent Strategies (Items 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8).

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report attitude inventory / Psychological Scale

Format: 12-item questionnaire utilizing a 4-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (used in primary research). Potential translations may exist for specific research contexts, such as Spanish versions referenced in the Latino Families and Youth compendium.

Population Group: Adolescents / Youth.

Age Group: Middle school students (typically grades 6-8).

Population Details: Utilized extensively with urban adolescents within large-scale studies focusing on violence prevention and social skills development.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate their agreement with statements using a 4-point Likert scale:

1. Strongly disagree = 1
2. Disagree = 2
3. Agree = 3
4. Strongly agree = 4

All items are reverse-coded prior to summing. A higher final score on the Beliefs about Aggression subscale indicates greater endorsement of pro-violence attitudes, while a higher score on the Use of Nonviolent Strategies subscale indicates stronger support for nonviolent conflict resolution techniques.

Keywords

Attitude Measurement, Likert Scale, Adolescent Psychology, Aggressive Behavior, Prevention Programs, Social Norms, Youth Assessment, Cognitive Distortions

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Correspondence Address: Correspondence related to the Multisite Violence Prevention Project data is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, GA.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was prominently utilized in key research published in 2001 (Farrell et al.) and subsequently documented in compendiums published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health organizations around 2004. Given its development within the publicly funded CDC Multisite Violence Prevention Project, the instrument is generally accessible for use in non-commercial academic and public health research, though users are advised to confirm specific permissions with the original authors or the CDC.

The instrument and related documentation are available in several publicly accessible compendiums:

• Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf

• An additional PDF reference is available here: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED486261.pdf

• Personal Beliefs about Alternatives can be found on page 108-109 of Latino Families and Youth: A Compendium of Assessment Tools, available online at: http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=23171&Itemid=

• Another related measurement document: http://www.codajic.org/sites/www.codajic.org/files/Binder-orpinas%20meassurement.pdf

Reference’s

Farrell AD, Meyer AL, White KS. Evaluation of responding in peaceful and positive ways (RIPP): a school-based prevention program for reducing violence among urban adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 2001: 30(4): 451-463.

Multisite Violence Prevention Project. (2004). Description of measures: cohort-wide student survey. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (Unpublished)

Multisite Violence Prevention Project. Description of measures: cohort-wide student survey, 2004. Available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, GA. (Unpublished)

Items of the Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives

Beliefs about Aggression and Alternatives

1. If I’m mad at someone, I just ignore them. (Nonviolent Strategies)
2. Even if other kids would think I’m weird, I would try to stop a fight. (Nonviolent Strategies)
3. It’s O.K. for me to hit someone to get them to do what I want. (Beliefs about Aggression)
4. Sometimes a person doesn’t have any choice but to fight. (Beliefs about Aggression)
5. When my friends fight, I try to get them to stop. (Nonviolent Strategies)
6. If I back down from a fight, everyone will think I’m a coward. (Beliefs about Aggression)
7. There are better ways to solve problems than fighting. (Nonviolent Strategies)
8. I try to talk out a problem instead of fighting. (Nonviolent Strategies)
9. I feel big and tough when I push someone around. (Beliefs about Aggression)
10. If people do something to make me really mad, they deserve to be beaten up. (Beliefs about Aggression)
11. Sometimes I have only two choices: get punched or punch the other kid first. (Beliefs about Aggression)
12. If I get crazy with anger, it’s O.K. to hit someone. (Beliefs about Aggression)

Personal Beliefs about Alternatives (Subset of Nonviolent Strategies)

1. If I’m mad at someone, I just ignore them.
2. Even if other kids would think I’m weird, I would try to stop a fight.
3. When my friends fight, I try to get them to stop.
4. There are better ways to solve problems than fighting.
5. I try to talk out a problem instead of fighting.