Gender differences in anger, anger expression, depression, and psychosomatic symptoms of Korean elementary school children

Aim: This descriptive correlational study was designed to describe the levels of anger and the types of anger expression of late school-age Korean children, and to examine the association between anger and identified anger expression types, and depression and psychosomatic symptoms in both genders. Methods: In this study, 1027 Korean boys and girls, ranging in age from 9 to 13 years, completed the Spielberger's state-trait anger expression inventory - Korean version that measures anger and anger expression, the personality factor scale for psychosomatic symptoms, and Birleson's self-rating scale for depressive mood during childhood. Results: Anger expression types were categorised as 'anger-out with high anger expression type', 'low anger expression type', 'anger-control/ in with high anger expression type', and 'anger-control type' in boys, and 'low anger expression type', 'anger in/out type', and 'anger-control type' in girls. The means of overall anger expression and anger-in were significantly higher for girls. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that school-age children having high levels of state anger and trait anger show higher levels of depression and more psychosomatic symptoms. Knowledge about anger expression types in late school-age Korean children can add to the growing body of knowledge about anger management during the early stages in life.