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Portuguese Validation of the Brief Peer Conflict Scale: Validity, Reliability and Invariance across Gender

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Abstract

Aggression is a multidimensional construct comprised of different forms and functions, the assessment of which has important implications for understanding externalizing problems in male and female youth. The main aim of the present study is to examine the psychometric properties of a form and function aggression measure, the Brief Peer Conflict Scale 20 (PCS-20) among a community sample of youth (N = 470, M = 15.89 years, SD = 1.00 years) from Portugal, divided into females (n = 213) and males (n = 257). The original four-factor latent structure of the PCS-20 obtained an adequate fit using confirmatory factor analysis, and strong cross gender invariance was demonstrated. The PCS-20 also demonstrated adequate reliability (measured by the Omega and Alpha coefficients), convergent and discriminant validities, criterion validity, and known-groups validity. Our findings support the use of the PCS-20 among Portuguese juveniles as a short measure of the forms and functions of aggression.

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Correspondence to Pedro Pechorro.

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Pedro Pechorro, Nicole Hayes, Mariana Gonçalves, Victor Hugo Palma, Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves, Monica Marsee declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Experiment Participants

This study was partially conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (UID/PSI/01662/2019), through national funds (PIDDAC).

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Pechorro, P., Hayes, N., Gonçalves, M. et al. Portuguese Validation of the Brief Peer Conflict Scale: Validity, Reliability and Invariance across Gender. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 43, 216–226 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09826-3

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