Anger assessment with the STAXI-CA

Abstract

The State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory for Child and Adolescent (STAXI-CA) is a highly specialized psychological self-report measure designed to provide a multidimensional assessment of the experience and expression of Anger in youth. This instrument is theoretically grounded in the established Anger-Hostility-Aggression (AHA) model, originally proposed by Charles Spielberger and colleagues in 1983. The STAXI-CA recognizes Anger as a core emotion that is deeply interconnected with the development of hostility and aggressive behaviors, which is particularly relevant during childhood and adolescence due to ongoing cognitive and emotional maturation processes.

A primary strength of the STAXI-CA is its ability to differentiate between two critical forms of anger: State Anger, representing a transitory, reactive emotional condition tied directly to the immediate situation, and Trait Anger, which reflects a stable personality disposition characterized by the frequent and intense experience of the emotion over time. Furthermore, the instrument evaluates the management of Anger through distinct expression subscales: Anger-In (internalized or suppressed feelings) and Anger-Out (externalized behaviors, often manifested as verbal or physical aggression). The Spanish adaptation of the STAXI-CA, validated for use with children and adolescents aged 7 to 17, serves as a reliable and valid tool for clinical diagnosis, research, and intervention planning related to maladjustment and behavior disorders.

Keywords

STAXI-CA, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, State Anger, Trait Anger, Anger Expression, Child assessment, Adolescents, Aggression, Psychometrics, Emotional regulation, Clinical psychology.

Authors

Victoria del Barrio, Anton Aluja, Charles Spielberger

Purpose

The core purpose of the STAXI-CA is to provide a comprehensive, standardized, and psychometrically sound assessment framework for measuring the diverse dimensions of anger experience and expression within younger populations. It functions as a specialized adaptation and extension of the highly regarded adult instrument, the STAXI-2, ensuring that the complexity of anger is captured effectively in children and adolescents.

The development of the Spanish adaptation was specifically driven by the urgent need for a culturally and linguistically appropriate tool to address the significant prevalence of child aggression and emotional dysregulation within Spanish and Latin-American populations. Key developmental objectives included ensuring the scale items were accessible and understandable for children over the age of seven, facilitating straightforward completion, and establishing robust evidence of reliability and validity for use in high-stakes clinical diagnosis and academic research settings.

Construct

The STAXI-CA is fundamentally structured around the Anger-Hostility-Aggression (AHA) model, which posits that anger is the foundational emotional state that often precedes and fuels subsequent expressions of hostility and aggression. Drawing upon decades of research in personality assessment, the instrument measures anger across two primary conceptual dimensions:

• State Anger (S-Ang): This dimension captures the intensity of anger as a temporary, immediate emotional reaction experienced by the individual at the moment of assessment. It is highly reactive and situation-dependent.
• Trait Anger (T-Ang): This dimension assesses the chronic disposition or stable personality tendency to experience angry feelings frequently, intensely, and across various situations. Trait Anger is often subdivided into Angry Temperament and Angry Reaction.

Furthermore, the scale rigorously assesses the behavioral expression of anger, classifying responses into internalized and externalized modes. These expression modes are critical for clinical differentiation and include: Anger Expression-In (AX-I), which measures the tendency to suppress, hold in, or internalize angry feelings; and Anger Expression-Out (AX-O), which measures the tendency to externalize anger through observable behaviors such as verbal outbursts, physical aggression toward others, or object destruction.

Validity

The STAXI-CA is reported to be a valid measure of anger in the target population of children and adolescents. Validity evidence supports that the instrument effectively measures the intended theoretical constructs—State Anger, Trait Anger, and the specific modes of expression—aligning with the underlying AHA model.

Validation studies have established external validity by showing that STAXI-CA scores are significantly correlated with scores from other established measures of anger, hostility, and aggression. Crucially, the instrument’s capacity to distinguish clearly between different facets of anger expression (Anger-In versus Anger-Out) provides robust support for its construct validity, verifying that it accurately reflects the multi-dimensional theoretical distinctions central to the assessment of emotional regulation difficulties in youth.

Reliability

The STAXI-CA is confirmed to be a reliable assessment tool, ensuring that it provides consistent and dependable measurements of anger across time and situations. Reliability is a fundamental psychometric property necessary for effective clinical application.

The instrument exhibits good internal consistency across its various scales (including State Anger, Trait Anger, Anger-In, and Anger-Out), indicating that items within each scale measure the same underlying construct coherently. Furthermore, studies have shown strong temporal stability, demonstrating that the scale is sensitive enough to track meaningful changes in anger levels over time, making it suitable for longitudinal research and for monitoring the efficacy of therapeutic interventions.

Factor Analysis

The factor structure of the STAXI-CA is designed to align with the multi-dimensional framework established by the adult version, the STAXI-2, confirming its theoretical consistency across the lifespan. The factor analysis of the instrument adaptation yielded a structure that supports the segregation of anger into distinct, measurable components.

This factor structure ensures clear differentiation between the situational intensity of anger (State Anger) and the dispositional frequency of anger (Trait Anger). Moreover, the analysis effectively separates the behavioral components of expression, allowing for the discrete measurement of internalized anger (Anger-In) and externalized anger (Anger-Out). This clear delineation among factors is essential for providing nuanced data required for differential clinical diagnosis and targeted treatment planning in clinical psychology.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire, psychological inventory

Format: Paper-and-pencil or digital administration; multi-item scale utilizing short, plain sentences structured for easy comprehension by children.

Language Available: Spanish (initial adaptation, STAXI-CA), derived from the English-language base of the STAXI/STAXI-2.

Population Group: Children and adolescents.

Age Group: 7 to 17 years old.

Population Details: The scale was specifically adapted and validated for use with Spanish and Latin-American youth, requiring careful attention to cultural appropriateness and linguistic clarity. The minimum age of 7 is justified by the developmental milestone enabling children to reliably discriminate and self-report on their emotional states.

Test Methodology: The instrument assesses 46 items distributed across multiple scales and subscales related to the experience and expression of anger (State Anger, Trait Anger, Anger-In, Anger-Out). Response formats typically involve rating the frequency or intensity of the experienced emotion or behavior.

Keywords

Psychological assessment, Emotional regulation, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, Clinical psychology, State Anger, Trait Anger, Youth violence, Adolescent mental health, Aggression-Hostility-Anger model, Psychometrics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Based on author affiliations listed in the 2004 source publication:

• Victoria del Barrio: Department of Personality, Faculty of Psychology, National University of Distance Education, Madrid, Spain.
• Anton Aluja: Department of Psychology, Universitat de Lleida, Catalunya, Spain.
• Charles Spielberger: Department of Psychology, South Florida University, Tampa, USA.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: The Spanish adaptation, the STAXI-CA, was officially published in 2004, following the research article detailing its psychometric properties (del Barrio, Aluja, & Spielberger, 2004).

Permissions & Fee: Permissions and licensing fees for the STAXI-CA are managed by the original test publisher (TEA Ediciones for the Spanish version) or the copyright holders of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) family of tests. Clinical professionals, researchers, or commercial users are required to contact the relevant proprietary body to secure the necessary rights for administration and scoring.

Reference’s

The following key references were cited in the source material related to the development and validation of the STAXI-CA:

• Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1978). The classification of child psychopathology: A review and analysis of empirical efforts. Psychological Bulletin, 85(6), 1275–1301.
• Averill, J. R. (1982). Anger and aggression: An essay on emotion. Springer-Verlag.
• Cattell, R. B. (1965). The scientific analysis of personality. Aldine Publishing Company.
• del Barrio, V. (2002). La evaluación de la agresión. Psicothema, 14, 114-117.
• del Barrio V., Aluja A., & Spielberger C. (2004). Anger assessment with the STAXI-CA: Psychometric properties of a new instrument for children and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 37(2), 227-244.
• Jacobs, G. A., & Blumer, C. (1985). Paediatric Anger Expression Scale (PAES). Unpublished manuscript.
• Jacobs, G. A., Phelps, T. M., & Rohrs, J. M. (1989). Further development of the Pediatric Anger Expression Scale. Psychological Reports, 65, 1147-1153.
• Miguel-Tobal, J. J., Casado, M. I., Cano-Vindel, A., & Spielberger, C. D. (2001). Inventario de Expresión de Ira Estado-Rasgo en el Niño y el Adolescente (STAXI-CA). TEA Ediciones.
• Novaco, R. W. (1975). Anger control: The development and evaluation of an experimental treatment. Lexington Books.
• Peterson, D. R. (1961). Behavior problems of children. Child Development, 32, 29-37.
• Spielberger, C. D. (1980). State-Trait Anger Scale (STAS). Unpublished manuscript, University of South Florida.
• Spielberger, C. D. (1988). State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Spielberger, C. D. (1999). State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Spielberger, C. D., Jacobs, G. A., Russell, S., & Crane, R. S. (1983). Assessment of anger: The State-Trait Anger Scale. In J. N. Butcher & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Advances in personality assessment (Vol. 2, pp. 159-187). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Spielberger, C. D., Johnson, E. H., Russell, S. F., Crane, R. J., Jacobs, G. A., & Worden, T. J. (1985). The experience and expression of anger: Construction and validation of an Anger Expression Scale. In M. A. Chesney & R. H. Rosenman (Eds.), Anger and hostility in cardiovascular and behavioral disorders (pp. 5-30). Hemisphere/McGraw-Hill.
• Tobin, D. L., Holroyd, K. A., & Reynolds, R. V. C. (1984). Coping Skills Inventory (CSI). Unpublished manuscript.
• Tremblay, R. E. (2000). The development of aggressive behaviour during childhood: What have we learned in the past century? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(2), 129-141.
• Zelin, M. L., Adler, G., & Myerson, P. G. (1972). Anger self-report: An objective questionnaire for the measurement of expression of anger. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 39(2), 340.

Items of the Anger assessment with the STAXI-CA

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. I am furious.
2. I feel irritated.
3. I feel angry.
4. I feel like yelling at somebody.
5. I feel like breaking things.
6. I feel like ha‎ving a fit.
7. I feel like hitting someone.
8. I feel like swearing.
9. I feel annoyed.
10. I feel like kicking someone.
11. I want to smash something
12. I feel like screaming.
13. I am quick tempered.
14. I have a bad temper.
15. I get angry very quickly.
16. I get angry when I have to wait because of other’s mistakes.
17. I feel annoyed when I am not given recognition for job well done.
18. I fly off the handle.
19. When I get bad‚ I say nasty things.
20. I get angry when I’m told I’m wrong in front of the others.
21. I feel infuriated when I do a good job and get a poor evaluation.
22. I express my anger.
23. I hide my anger.
24. I feel like crying.
25. I withdraw from other people
26. I do things like slamming doors.
27. I argue with others
28. I am angry‚ but I don’t show it.
29. I attack whatever it is that annoys me
30. I can stop myself from loosing.
31. I can stop myself from loosing.
32. I get calm faster than others.
33. I try to be tolerant.
34. If someone annoys me‚ I let them know
35. I hold my anger in.
36. I attack whatever makes me angry.
37. I control my anger feelings.
38. I try to calm myself.
39. I take a deep breath and relax.
40. I try to simmer down.
41. I try to get calm.
42. I reduce my anger as soon as possible.
43. I reduce my anger as soon as possible.
44. I do something to calm down.
45. I try to relax.
46. I do something that relaxes me.