Anger and Support Scale(AAS)

Background of the  Anger and Support Scale(AAS):

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The Anger and Support Scale (AAS) is a measure specifically tailored to the assessment of anger, includes types of support that are likely to be responsive to a wide range of stressful events (Cohen & Wills, 1985) such as emotional and informational support, does not specify the type of relationship (which will not limit its use) and is normed with an the African-American, adolescent population. Also, the AAS is self-explanatory, easy to use, will be readily available at no cost, and time-conserving which is an ideal research instrument for use when subject time is limited or multiple measures are being administered.

The Anger and Support Scale (AAS) was created to measure one’s perceived level of support surrounding the emotion, anger. Anger and Support Scale (AAS) is a measure specifically tailored to the assessment of anger, includes types of support that are likely to be responsive to a wide range of stressful events (Cohen & Wills, 1985) such as emotional and informational support, does not specify the type of relationship (which will not limit its use) and is normed with an the African-American, adolescent population. Also, the AAS is self-explanatory, easy to use, will be readily available at no cost, and time-conserving which is an ideal research instrument for use when subject time is limited or multiple measures are being administered.

Anger and Support Scale (AAS). The AAS tested in this study measures the participant’s perceived level of support surrounding anger (i.e. “I have a person I can talk to when I get angry”) within the past 3 weeks. The preliminary questionnaire consisted of 12 items. Participants rated each item using a 5-point Likert-type scale, with 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. The items from the preliminary (12-item) version of the AAS are listed in Appendix C. Appendix D lists items from the final 6-item version of the AAS. Higher score on the AAS indicate a higher level of perceived level of support surrounding anger.

Items of the Anger and Support Scale(AAS):

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Directions: Think about how you have felt over the past 3 weeks, indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each statement below by using the following scale:

Psychometric properties of the Anger and Support Scale(AAS):

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Anger and Support Scale (AAS). The AAS measures a participant’s perceived level of support surrounding feelings of anger. Participants respond to each item using a 5-point Likert-type scale, with 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. Higher scores on the AAS indicate a higher level of perceived level of support. With a possible range of 6 to 30, the mean AAS score was 16.98 with a SD of 6.36. The overall internal consistency of the 6-item AAS produced an overall strong reliability (α= .857), suggesting a high degree of internal consistency among the items on the scale. Item-total correlations ranged from .59 to .68, suggesting an existing correlation between the items and the rest of the measure.
A review of response frequencies across categories (individual Likert anchor points) suggested participant responses to the AAS generally had a slight positive skew (skewness of .233) with a relatively flat distribution (kurtosis -1.14), suggesting more strongly disagree and mildly disagree (46% cumulative) values were selected as compared to strongly agree and mildly agree (33% cumulative) and relative symmetry across anchor points. More specifically, out of a total of 2,860 responses from the study #2 participant sample, strongly disagree was endorsed 600 times (21%), mildly disagree was endorsed 715 times (25%), agree/disagree was endorsed 533 times (18%), mildly agree was endorsed 500 times (17%), and strongly agree was endorsed 457 times (16%).

• A=Strongly Disagree (SD)
• B=Mildly Disagree (MD)
• C=Agree and Disagree equally (A/D)
• D=Mildly Agree (MA)
• E=Strongly Agree (SA)

References of the Anger and Support Scale(AAS):

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