Assessing the Correlation between Parental Incarceration and Relational Aggression: Factor Structure of the Diverse Adolescent Relational Aggression Scale (DARAS)

ABSTRACT

This study details the development of the Diverse Adolescent Relational Aggression Scale (DARAS), to examine the association between parental incarceration and relational aggression in a high school population. The sample was comprised of predominantly African American high school students (N = 191) between 14–18 years of age from a North Texas school district. Data were collected through survey completion: a demographics survey, the DARAS, the Index of Family Relations, and a relational aggression subscale. Exploratory factor analysis, regression analysis, and reliability tests were conducted. The results indicate average validity and reliability for the DARAS with this diverse sample. Although no association was found between relational aggression and parental incarceration, there was an association found between parental arrest and parental aggression. Overall, the findings provided support for the DARAS when studying this population. The use of this measure by student service personnel to assess relational aggression was discussed, along with implications for practice and continued research.

KEYWORDS:

• Relational aggression
• relational aggression measures and scales
• parental incarceration and arrest
• parental aggression
• diverse adolescents

Disclosure of interest

The author declares that she has no conflicts to report.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study and no personal information can be linked to the participants’ responses.