[Scale for assessment of aggressive behavior of adolescents]

This study consists of the validation of a scale for the analysis of violent behavior in adolescents. It is a cross-sectional observational study. A total of 437 adolescent students from public and private schools in the city of Recife in Pernambuco state participated in the study by responding to a questionnaire. Semantic and Content Validation was performed, followed by Dimensionality, Reliability, Discriminant, Trust and Convergent Analysis. The extraction method was Principal Component Analysis with Varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization. The analysis resulted in a scale for assessment of aggressive behavior of teenagers with 39 items. Seven factors were selected and Cronbach's total alpha was 0.830. Discriminant analysis revealed groups of items that distinguish subjects between high and low level of violent behavior and between groups of items revealed a positive correlation among 17 items and the reliability of the instrument was confirmed in the retest. The scale revealed evidence of validity as a tool for assessing violent behavior among adolescents.