Reliability and validity of the Korean 12-item Perception of Aggression scale.

INTRODUCTION Despite the high prevalence of patient-perpetrated violence against Korean nurses globally, reliable and valid measures of patient aggression are lacking in Korean. AIM We translated the 12-item Perception of Aggression Scale (POAS) into Korean and psychometrically assessed its utility in measuring nurses' attitudes towards aggression. METHODS The 12-item Korean POAS was obtained through forward-backward translation and cognitive debriefing. It was administered online to 319 nurses (mean age = 32.64 years; females = 96.2%), of which 206 completed it again after two weeks. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the 3-factor structure as hypothesized in the original version. The intra-class correlation coefficient was used to assess the test-retest reliability. RESULTS The originally hypothesized 3-factor structure showed a good fit. The 3 dimensions: aggression as a dysfunctional or undesirable phenomenon, aggression as a functional or comprehensible phenomenon, and aggression as a protective measure had internal consistencies of .74, .86 and .90 and corresponding ICCs of .70, .86 and .90, respectively. DISCUSSION The 12-item Korean POAS is a valid and reliable scale that might aid investigating nurses' attitudes towards patient aggression. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE The 12-item Korean POAS can help Korean nurses adopt protective behaviours and develop interventions to cope with aggression.