Abstract
Difficulty controlling anger and aggression pose significant problems for many children. The focus of research has been primarily on aggression, although understanding the role of anger may be at the essence of developing more effective treatment interventions for aggression and/or conduct disorder. The present article describes the cognitive-behavioral view of anger, and provides a detailed description of the Children's Inventory of Anger (CIA), a self-report inventory designed to assess a child's experience of anger. A review of the psychometric properties of the CIA is presented, along with a discussion of its clinical utility. The need for a more precise definition of anger is apparent in order to improve assessment and treatment of anger in children.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Averill, J. R. (1982).Anger and aggression: An essay on emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Ax, A. F. (1953). The psychological differentiation between fear and anger in humans.Psychosomatic Medicine, 15, 433–442.
Bandura, A. (1973).Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (1986).Social foundations of thought and esteem: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Beach, C. F., & Laird, J. D. (1968). Follow-up study of children identified early as emotionally disturbed.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 32, 369–374.
Berkowitz, L. (1974). Some determinants of impulsive aggression: Role of mediated associations with reinforcements for aggression.Psychological Review, 81, 165–176.
Borkovec, T. D. Autonomic reactivity to sensory stimulation in psychopathic, neurotic and normal delinquents.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 35, 217–222.
Camp, B. W., & Bash, M. A. S. (1985). “Think Aloud”: Increasing social and cognitive Skills. A problem-solving program for children. Champaign, IL: Research Press.
Dodge, K. A. (1985). Attributional bias in aggressive children. In P. C. Kendall (Ed.),Advances in cognitive-behavioral research and therapy. New York:Academic Press.
Dollard, J., Doob, L. W., Miller, N. E., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939).Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press.
Feindler, E. L., & Ecton, R. B. (1986).Adolescent anger control: Cognitive-behavioral techniques. New York: Pergamon Press.
Finch, A. J., Jr., & Eastman, E. S. (1983). A multimethod approach to measuring anger in children.Journal of Psychology, 115, 55–60.
Finch, A. J., Jr., Nelson, W. M., III, & Moss, J. (1993). Stress inoculation for anger control in aggressive children. In A. J. Finch, Jr., W. M. Nelson III, & E. Ott, (Eds).Cognitive behavioral procedures with children and adolescents: A practical guide. Newton, MA: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
Finch, A. J., Jr., Saylor, C. F., & Nelson, W. M., III. (1983). The Children's Inventory of Anger: A self-report measure. Paper presented at the convention of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, CA.
Finch, A. J., Jr., Saylor, C. F., & Nelson, W. M., III. (1987). Assessment of anger in children. In R. J. Prinz (Ed.),Advances in behavioral assessment of children and families, (Vol.3). Greenwich, CN: JAI Press.
Forehand, R., & McMahon, R. J. (1981).Helping the noncompliant child. New York: Guilford Press.
Fowles, D. C. (1980). The Three Arousal Model: Implications of Gray's two-factor learning theory for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and psychopathy.Psychophysiology, 17, 87–104.
Freud, S. A. (1920).A general introduction to psycho-analysis. New York: Boni & Liveright.
Hamberger, L. K. & Lohr, J. M. (1980). Rational restructuring for anger control: A quasi-experimental case study.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 4, 99–102.
Hare, R. D. (1978). Electrodermal and cardiovascular correlates of psychopathy. In R. D. Hare & D. Schallings (Eds.),Psychopathic behavior: Approaches to research. London: Wiley.
Hollan, S. D., & Beck, A. T. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. In P. C. Kendall & S. D. Hollan (Eds.),Cognitive-behavioral interventions: Theory, research, and procedures. New York: Academic Press.
Jacobs, G., & Kronaizl, C. (1991). Pediatric anger in rural impoverished communities. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August, 1991.
Johnson, S. (1980). Anger management via stress inoculation with six emotionally disturbed children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Kazdin, A. E. (1990). Conduct disorder in childhood. In M. Hersen & C. G. List (Eds.),Handbook of child and adult psychopathology. New York: Pergamon.
Kimball, W., Nelson, W. M., III., & Politano, P. M. (1993). The role of developmental variables in cognitive-behavioral interventions with children. In A. J. Finch, Jr., W. M. Nelson, III., & E. Ott (Eds.),Cognitive behavioral procedures with children and adolescents: A practical guide. Newton, MA: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
Lochman, J. E., Lampron, L. B., Gemmer, T. C., & Harris, S. R. (1987). Anger coping intervention for aggressive children: Guide to implementation in school settings. In P. A. Keller & S. Heyman (Eds.),Innovations in clinical practice: A source book, (Vol.6). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resources Exchange.
Lohr, J. M., Hamberger, L. K., & Bonge, D. (1989). The nature of irrational beliefs in different clusters of spouse abusers.Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, 6, 273–285.
Lorenz, K. (1966).On aggression. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Mayhall, C. A., Nelson, W. M., III, Politano, P. M., & Wendall, N. H. (1986). Psychiatric investigations of the Children's Inventory of Anger with emotionally disturbed children. Paper presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Orlando, FL.
Mayhall, C. A., Politano, P. M., Wendal, N. H., & Nelson, W. M., III. (1987). Concurrent and multitrait-multimethod investigations with the Children's Inventory of Anger. Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, Georgia.
McDougall, W. (1931).An introduction to social psychology. London: Methuen.
Meichenbaum, D. (1985).Stress inoculation training. New York: Pergamon Press.
Montgomery, L. E., Nelson, W. M., III, & Finch, A. J., Jr. (1979). Anger in children: Preliminary investigations of anger-evoking stimuli in children. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans.
Moyer, K. E. (1971). The psychology of aggression and the implications for aggression control. In J. L. Singer (Ed.),The control of aggression and violence. New York: Academic Press.
Nelson, W. M., III, & Finch, A. J., Jr. (1978). Nelson-Finch Children's Inventory of Anger manual. Unpublished manuscript, Xavier University (Ohio), 1978.
Nelson, W. M., III, & Finch, A. J., Jr. (1991). Assessment of anger in children: Development of the CIA. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.
Novaco, R. W. (1975).Anger control: The development and evaluation of an experimental treatment. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, Lexington Books.
Novaco, R. W. (1976a). The functions and regulations of the arousal of anger.American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 1124–1128.
Novaco, R. W. (1976b). Treatment of chronic anger through cognitive and relaxation control.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 44, 681.
Novaco, R. W. (1977). A stress inoculation approach to anger management in the training of law enforcement officers.American Journal of Community Psychology, 5, 327–346.
Novaco, R. W. (1978). Anger and coping with stress. In J. P. Foreyt & D. P. Rathjen (Eds.),Cognitive behavior therapy: Research and application. New York: Plenum Press.
Novaco, R. (1979). The cognitive regulation of anger and stress. In P. C. Kendall & S. D. Hollan (Eds.),Cognitive-behavioral interventions: Theory, research, and procedures. New York: Academic Press.
Piaget, J. (1965).The moral judgment of children. New York: Free Press.
Raine, A., & Venables, P. H. (1984a). Tonic heart rate level, social class and antisocial behavior in adolescents.Biological Psychology 18, 123–132.
Raine, A., & Venables, P. H. (1984b). Electrodermal nonresponding, antisocial behavior, and schizoid tendencies in adolescents.Psychophysiology, 21, 424–433.
Robins, L. N. (1979). Sturdy childhood predictors of adult outcome replication from longitudinal studies. In J. E. Barrett, R. M. Rose, & G. L. Klerman (Eds.),Stress and mental disorder. New York: Raven.
Robins, L. N. (1981). Epidemiological approaches to natural history research: Antisocial disorders in children.Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 20, 566–580.
Saylor, C. F., Benson, B., & Einhaus, L. (1985). Evaluation of an anger management program for aggressive boys in inpatient treatment.Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 2, 5–15.
Saylor, C. F., Finch, A. J. Jr., Baskin, C. H., Furey, W., & Kelly, M. M. (1984). Construct validity for measures of childhood depression: Application of multitrait-multimethod methodology.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 52, 977–985.
Schmidt, K., Solanto, M. V., & Bridger, W. H. (1985). Electrodermal activity of undersocialized aggressive children: A pilot study.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26, 653–660.
Speilberger, C. (1986). Assessment of the experience, expression, and control of anger. Invited address presented at the meeting of the Society for Personality Assessment, Tampa, FL.
Speilberger, C. D., Jacobs, G., Russell, S., & Crane, R. (1983). Assessment of anger: The State-Trait Anger Scale. In J. N. Butcher & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.),Advances in Personality Assessment, (Vol. 2). Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.
Stein, A. B., Finch, A. J., Jr., Hooke, J. F., Montgomery, L. E., & Nelson, W. M. III. (1975). Cognitive tempo and the mode of representation in emotionally disturbed children and normal children.Journal of Psychology, 90, 197–201.
Weiss, B., Weisz, J. R., Politano, P. M., Carey, M., Nelson, W. M., III, & Finch, A. J. (1991). Developmental differences in the factor structure of the Children's Depression Inventory.Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 3, 38–45.
Wolfe, V., Finch, J. A., Saylor, C. F., Blount, R. L., Pallmeyer, T., & Carek, D. (1987). Negative affectivity in children: A multitrait-multimethod investigation.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 175–179.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
W. Michael Nelson III, Ph.D., is chairman of the Department of Psychology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also a diplomate in clinical psychology as recognized by the American Board of Professional Psychology and has a small private practice in Cincinnati. Kathleen Hart, Ph.D. is a clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a private practice in treating and assessing children. A. J. Finch Jr., Ph.D. is the chairman of the Department of Psychology at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. He is a diplomat in clinical psychology as recognized by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nelson, W.M., Hart, K.J. & Finch, A.J. Anger in children: A cognitive behavioral view of the assessment-therapy connection. J Rational-Emot Cognitive-Behav Ther 11, 135–150 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01074091
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01074091