Comparación de los niveles de agresión entre hombres que ejercen violencia en la pareja y un grupo control, medidos con la versión chilena de la Escala de Agresión de Buss and Perry

Abstract

Background: Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem, with a prevalence reaches 49% for psychological violence and 13% physical violence. Aim: To compare the levels of aggression between a sample of men referred for domestic violence therapy (n = 34) and a nonclinical sample (N = 40), assessed by the Chilean version of the AQ scale. Method: Comparative analytical observational cross-sectional study. Results: Statistically significant differences in favor of the group of perpetrators was found, in overall AQ scores (p = 0.013), physical aggression subscale (p = 0.005), anger subscale (p = 0.005) and hostility subscale (p = 0.000). No statistically significant differences were found in verbal aggression subscale (p = 0.705), despite being the clinical group scores higher than the control group. Conclusions: Results are partially consistent with findings from previous research. Results are discussed from an empirical and sociological perspective.