Introduction

The Teacher-Report Scale (TRS) is one of the most commonly used measures to separately rating reactive aggression and proactive aggression in childhood. In Brazil, measures to evaluate children`s aggressive behavior are scarce. In addition, there's not an instrument for assessing these two aggressive behaviors’ subtypes.The TRS was originally developed for US population. Considering the linguistic and cultural differences among the new target population and the original population, standardized procedures when adapting assessment measures for new populations were followed. Psychometric qualities comparable with the original instrument are expected.

Objectives

Report the stages followed and the results of the translation and cultural adaptation process of TRS for Brazilian Portuguese.

Method

According to standardized guidelines, the followed stages were:  (1) Translation for the target language. (2) Synthesis of the first translations, verifying semantic, idiomatic, experiential, and conceptual equivalences for each item. (3) Evaluation of this synthesis by experts.(4) Evaluation of the partial version by the target population (Content validity using focal groups). (5) Back translation. (6) Pilot study (n= 125, boys= 83%, mean of age= 9.4, SD= 3.6, public school= 59%).

Results

For the final version of the TRS, the number of items remained six, as in the original measure. No changes in the items were requested after the third stage. In the pilot study, the TRS showed moderate-to-high reliability, with Cronbach’s Alpha .70, and moderate-to-low correlation between the two-factors r=.40 (p< .01).

Conclusions

Regarding the translation process, the importance of considering the equivalences was highlighted. Concerning the adaptation process, the content validity proved its importance but may be failed to consider the true response situation.TRS can now be submitted to further validity evidences. Moreover, it can be used in future research with Portuguese-speaking populations.