Accessible summary
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There is a distinct lack of studies that explore the perceptions of aggressive behaviour in health care at the national and international levels.
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There is also a lack of tools to evaluate the perceptions of aggression in the Turkish language.
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This study examines psychometric validation of the Perception of Aggression Scale to gain an insight into aggression in different cultures.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Perception of Aggression Scale. Cross-sectional data were collected by the completion of questionnaires by 350 nursing students from two nursing schools in Istanbul, Turkey. The psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the scale were analysed by using factor analysis (principal component analysis), assessment of internal consistency and reliability, and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. The two-factor structure was confirmed by principal component analysis: the first factor treated aggression as functional and the second as dysfunctional. The correlation between the means of the items and dimensions was moderate (r for factor 1: 0.47–0.73; r for factor 2: 0.29–0.70). The coefficient of internal consistency of the scale was 0.85 for factor 1 and 0.81 for factor 2. Thus, Turkish version of Perception of Aggression Scale is a valid and reliable tool. It is essential to understand perceptions of aggressive behaviour in order to establish effective management strategies to tackle untoward events in clinical settings.