Aggression in adolescents: Use of the Buss-Durkee Inventory

The Buss-Durkee Inventory (BDI) is a 75-item true-false design to measure hostility and aggression. Norms have been established for adult populations, and data are available for adult psychiatric populations. Adolescent norms have not been established, nor are data available for adolescent psychiatric populations. This study provides BDI data on 438 high school students, giving breakdown by age, sex, and race. In addition, BDI scores for 100 patients admitted consecutively to an adolescent inpatient unit are presented. Scores on the BDI were higher in the younger high school age groups. Female patients had higher scores than girls in the high school control group; male patients scored lower than their male controls. Female patients surprisingly scored higher than male patients.