Psychometric Properties of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) in a sample of Colombian children and adolescents

Objective: To establish the psychometric properties of the aggression questionnaire (AQ) in a sample of Colombian children and adolescents. Method: The AQ was submitted to the judgment of seven experts in order to verify and adjust the clarity of the items taking into account the characteristics of the Colombian population. Following this analysis and adjustment of items, the instrument was applied to a sample of 892 participants between 10 and 23 years of age. For validity, evidence of internal structure was taken into account through confirmatory factor analysis and evidence based on the relationship with other variables. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis showed two models, one of factorial correlation and the other of second order indicating a model fit. Likewise, internal consistency was calculated by means of the Omega index, which showed precision in the measures for each factor in each of the models. The analysis suggested the elimination of four items. Conclusions: The first-order model was chosen because the empirical evidence shows that it satisfactorily operationalises the theoretical model of aggressive behaviour with which the instrument was constructed, assuming that the four subscales are necessary as a whole, but by themselves are not sufficient to assess aggressive behaviour by means of its items.