Anger rumination and imagined violence as related to violent behavior before and after psychiatric hospitalization.

Objective: Anger rumination and imagined violence, in the context of anger/aggression proclivity, are examined for their direct and conjoint associations with violent behavior by psychiatric patients.

Method: A secondary analysis of data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Study was conducted with 1136 acute civil commitment patients, assessed during hospitalization and after hospital discharge. Anger/aggression proclivity was assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale hostility subscale, anger rumination was indexed using items from the Novaco Anger Scale, and imagined violence was measured with Grisso's Schedule of Imagined Violence.