Adolescent Anger Rating Scale™ (AARS™)
Deanna McKinnie Burney, Ph.D.

The AARS is a 41-item instrument for assessing the frequency and intensity of anger expression in adolescents ages 11 to 19 years.   Individuals indicate which behaviors they exhibit when angered and how often each behavior typically occurs.  The 4-point response scales, ranging from “Hardly Ever” to “Very Often”, are reported for Total Anger and 3 subscales measuring response patterns: Instrumental Anger, Reactive Anger, and Anger Control.  Elevated AARS scores can help identify adolescents who are at risk for diagnoses consistent in the DSM-IV:

• Conduct Disorder (CD)
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD)

As the goal of any anger intervention program is to help the adolescent manage his/her anger, practitioners using the AARS will be able to select the most appropriate intervention program for the specific type(s) of anger the adolescent typically expresses.   In addition, therapists who employ anger control training will find the AARS a useful measure of behavior change!
 
Individuals may complete the items independently, or the counselor may read the items aloud for those whose reading proficiency is low or limited. 
 
The AARS Professional Manual provides directions for administration, scoring, and interpretation - including case samples – as well as information about the development and validation of the instrument in two age groups:  middle school (Grades 6-8) and high school (Grades 9-12).  Five ethnic groups were represented in a normative sample of 4,187 adolescent boys and girls of these age groups.