Study of the psychometric properties and population norms of the C-SHARP in a representative French population

Abstract

Purpose To fill this gap, this paper aims to translate the children’s scale of hostility and aggression: reactive/proactive (C-SHARP) into French and then tested its psychometric properties and established the first French standards. Design/methodology/approach This paper assess the aggressive behavior of 305 children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). This paper tested the scale’s factor structure (confirmatory factor analysis), internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Findings The results support a factor structure similar to the US version. Factor analysis yielded a five-factor solution, namely, verbal aggression (12 items), bullying (12 items), covert aggression (11 items), hostility (9 items) and physical aggression (8 items). The French-speaking version of the C-SHARP shows good reliability (internal consistency) and good inter-rater reliability. The French version demonstrated encouraging evidence of validity. This paper also established French norms that were similar to US norms. This paper concludes that the French-speaking version of the C-SHARP must benefit from additional psychometric analyzes to confirm its adaptation for research and the clinic. Originality/value There is no tool currently available in France for the evaluation of aggressive behavior in children and adolescents with ID. The C-SHARP (Farmer and Aman, 2009) is the only questionnaire that specifically assesses aggression in children and adolescents with ID, its form, frequency and its proactive or reactive qualities. The French version of the C-SHARP could be a useful diagnostic tool to assess aggressive behavior in children and adolescents with ID and to identify and set up appropriate support strategies.