Abstract
Objectives. The purpose of this paper was (a) description of characteristic traits of inner disposition to aggressive conduct; (b) verification of association of the construct and accompanying factors and launching mechanisms; (c) construction of local norms using responses from incarcerated adolescents.
Subjects and settings. Responses were obtained from a sample of 191 boys presently confined in five prisons for adolescents, average age 16,85; SD=1,55; range 14-19 years.
The subjects filled in the BPAQ-SF, NIM18 questionnaires, a scale reflecting social status of respondents, and a scale describing relations of respondents to parents individually. Administration of instruments was individual, anonymous, and after signing informed consent.
Results. The psychometric integrity of instruments was supported using confirmatory factor analysis.
Item analysis of the BPAQ-SF scale revealed primarily well-marked negative emotional life experience, general dissatisfaction and proclivity to reactive aggression. Distribution of the scale scores was positively skewed but the range of values comprised only the higher part of theoretical interval.
The readiness to react violently was noticeably associated with uneasy relation to mother, responding without proper consideration or reflection, deficit of interpersonal skills, and accompanied by social alienation, low social status, disregard of consensual social norms. Local norms were constructed in percentile format together with 95% CI using Bayesian approach.
Study limitation. Sample of adolescents was not representative and self-reporting within forensic populations is especially susceptible to social desirability.