Development and cross-cultural and clinical validation of a brief comprehensive scale for assessing hostility in medical settings

This study presents the development and validation of a brief comprehensive hostility scale. Two items of each subscale from the Buss-Perry (1992) Agg ression questionnaire, most strongly correlated with their subscale score, were selected, yielding the eight-item New-Buss. Internal reliability was . 66 to .81, and full and brief scales correlated r = .92 to .94, In Study 1 (95 Israeli students), New-Buss scores were significantly higher in self-ra ted deviant or speeding drivers than nondeviant or nonspeeding drivers, res pectively, In Study 2 (279 American students), New-Buss scores correlated s ignificantly with Barefoot's Ho, Anger-Out, Anger-in, and Agreeableness. In Study 3 (79 Israeli patients undergoing angiography), New-Buss scores were significantly correlated with coronary artery disease severity independent of SEP in men be low age 60 alone but not in women. Our findings support t he cross-cultural feasibility, reliability, and concurrent construct, and c riterion validity of the New-Buss.