Psychometric evaluation of the Spanish version of Dimensions of Anger Reactions-5 (DAR-5) in university students

Introduction and objectives: Anger is related to mental and physical health, so its evaluation is important for many health sciences where anger management interventions have been implemented. In this sense, the objective of the study was to translate into Spanish, evaluate the factor structure, reliability and factor invariance regarding the gender of the Dimensions of Anger Reactions (DAR-5), as well as examine the convergent and discriminant validity of DAR-5 based on its correlations with another measure of anger propensity, well-being, mindfulness, and anxiety in college students. Material and method: A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to explore the internal structure of the scale and a multigroup factor analysis to test the invariance through gender in a sample of 420 university students (M_age = 21.14, DT = 3.01) who answered the following scales: DAR-5, Garcia's Anger Propensity Scale (APS-G), Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS-5), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-2 (GAD-2). Results: The results indicated that the DAR-5 is an essentially one-dimensional instrument and that it provides precise scores (ω =.86 for the total sample, ω =.87 for the subsample of women and ω =.86 for the subsample of men). The configurational, metric and scalar invariance of the DAR-5 was verified, which leads to the assumption that it measures the same construct in men and women. Likewise, elevated levels of anger were associated with increased generalized anxiety and decreased life satisfaction and mindfulness. Conclusions: The DAR-5 is a reliable, valid and invariant measure of anger among university students and can be recommended as an indicator of psychological adjustment in this population.