Aggressive Behaviors of Children in School: Evidence of EPPCACE internal validity

Abstract The objective of this study was to verify whether the psychometric patterns of the Scale of teachers’ perception of aggressive behavior of children in school (EPPCACE) showed evidence of its internal validity. In Study 1 (n = 210) the instrument was adapted and an exploratory factorial analysis was performed. In Study 2 (n = 203) a confirmatory factorial analysis was performed. Elementary school teachers in public and private schools participated and answered the EPPCACE and sociodemographic questions. Results indicated that the instrument is composed of three factors: Aggressiveness directed to the general scope (α = 0.95), Pro-social behaviors (α = 0.90), and Aggressiveness directed to teachers (α = 0.90). We concluded that the EPPCACE is valid and reliable, and it can help in the evaluation of the school context from the teacher’s perception of the aggressive behavior of the students.