Applicability of Olweus' Aggression Inventory in a Sample of Chinese Primary School Children.

A sample of Chinese children in Grade 4(155 boys and 135 girls with an average age 10.3 years) completed Olweus' Aggression Inventory, an instrument developed for the assessment of aggressive and aggression controlling behavior tendencies in a Western culture. Results indicated that the questionnaire gave quite meaningful Information when used with the Chinese children. Two interpretable factors, general aggression and aggression control, were derived; the pattern of factor loadings was essentially the same for boys and girls. The internal consistency reliabilities of the two factor scales were In the .80s and .70s, respectively. Overall, the findings indicated that there were distinct measurable individual differences among Chinese children in the domain of aggression--in spite of strong societal pressures against aggressive behavior and towards aggression control. However, some results suggested that aggression was a somewhat more global. or less differentiated, phenomenon for the Chinese as compared with the Swedish children. The two main factor scales were related meaningfully to other self report dimensions such as positive attitude to school and negative relations with parents. In all probability, the pattern of findings gave a valid picture of the behavior and attitudes of the Chinese children: By and large they were nonabrasive, well-behaved, ambitious, friendly, prosocial, and exerted strong control over aggressive feelings and behavior tendencies. In possible conflicts with adults, they were likely to take a humble and submissive attitude. These findings agree well with the impressions of Western observers and with what can be expected on the basis of the typical socialization patterns found in the People's Republic of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]