Developing a brief tool for anger assessment in clinical settings

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Anger assessment is crucial in clinical settings.
• Existing tools may lack brevity or clinical applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Cluain Mhuire Clinical Anger Scale (CMCAS).
• To create a brief, reliable anger assessment tool for clinical use.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods development including client/clinician interviews and item analysis.
• Psychometric validation on psychiatric day hospital clients and a non-clinical group.
• Reliability (internal consistency, test-retest) and convergent validity assessed.

Main Results:

• The validated CMCAS is a 12-item scale with good internal reliability (α = 0.82).
• Excellent test-retest reliability (r = 0.93) was observed.
• The scale demonstrated convergent validity with STAXI-2 and effectively differentiated anger-related subgroups.

Conclusions:

• The CMCAS is a psychometrically sound instrument.
• The scale shows potential as a valuable screening and assessment tool in clinical environments.