State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2) in a sample of Chilean men batterers: Validity and reliability

The purpose of the study was to test the Spanish version of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2) and establish reference values for Chilean samples. The psychometric properties of the instrument were analyzed and two additional indicators were incorporated to assess the differences between abusers and non-abusers. The sample was composed of 738 male batterers and 100 men with no history of violence. The internal consistency of the instrument with 49 items was .93. The reliability indices for the subscales were: state (.94), trait anger (.90) and anger expression and control (.85). There is a large overlap between the subscales and factor analysis results do not support the internal consistency of the original author. It accounted for 60.4% of the explained variance in anger expression. One possible line of research would be to analyze how different coping modes effectively deal with anger in batterers according to their level of risk.