Reliability and validity evidence of the Expressive and Instrumental Aggression Questionnaire (CAIE) in prison inmates

Abstract

The Instrumental and Expressive Aggression Questionnaire (CAIE) is a self-report instrument that allows evaluating aggression based on its motivational bases. The objective of this study was to evaluate its psychometric properties in a Spanish prison sample. The CAIE and other scales (SAQ, PCL-R, and VRAG) were completed by 302 male offenders from several Spanish prisons. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the structure of the CAIE was explained by a three-factor solution (two first-order factors and one second-order factor). The Cronbach’s alpha and omega coefficients showed adequate internal consistency of the total CAIE score and its subscales. In addition, the correlations obtained between the CAIE and the other scales were statistically significant and showed high and moderate magnitudes, indicating evidence of concurrent validity of the instrument. The results indicate the importance of aggression as a factor to be taken into account when assessing the risk of violence.