Development and Validation of a Short Form Questionnaire to Measuring Wife Abuse

Expended Abstract Introduction: Domestic violence is one of the most common social deviances worldwide. Domestic violence includes child abuse, elder abuse, and spouse abuse (Moreno et al., 2005; Dalal & Lindquist, 2012). One of the most important forms of violence in the family is caused by men exercising their social or physical power against women. However, this problem is an integral part of many cultures and societies and has been accepted as a social norm in some parts of the world (Dutton, 2011).Although there is no accurate data on the rate of spouse abuse in Iran, different studies have reported about 30 to 93.6% spouse abuse against women (Panaghi et al, 2017). Method: In the methodology section of this study, exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the validity of the instrument, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to determine its reliability. The researchers identified the most important items that could cover different aspects of spouse abuse through extensive literature review and the use of some existing questionnaires. It should be noted that in the existing questionnaires related to the cultural issues of the country, the section as regards sexual abuse was not available. Therefore, the questions related to this section were added to the items of the original questionnaire by examining external questionnaires. Multistage sampling was used to select the sample. The required sample size was determined by dividing Tehran into different regions. Thus, based on gender and age, the sample was selected from all regions of Tehran. From each region of Tehran, three neighborhoods with high, medium, and low socioeconomic status were randomly selected. In this study, exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the validity of the instrument. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using principal component analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation. Results: The mean age of the participants was 43.40 years. From among all the participants, 26.4% of them had bachelor’s degree, and 16.1% of them were unemployed. The mean and standard deviation of the total score of spouse abuse for total sample is 35.99 and 18.01 (Table 1). Table 1: the status of spouse abuse for the sample Variable    SD    M    N Light physical violence    5.21     8.52      514 Severe physical violence     3.61    6.13      521 Emotional violence    6.72     11.46     533 Verbal violence     3.66    5.34     541 Sexual violence    3.07     4.68     489 Total     10.46     35.99     531 Prior to performing factor analysis, the Kaiser-Meier-Olekin and Spearman-Bartlett tests were conducted to ensure that the data in this study were sufficient and appropriate for the factor analysis. Data were analyzed using Bartlett test. The results of this analysis showed the suitability of the data for factor analysis (Table 2). Table 2: the results of the KMO and Bartlett Tests KMO    Bartlett’s Test (X 2)    Df    P  0.92    8210.92     17     0.0001 According to these two criteria, five factors were extracted from the data that explained approximately 72% of the variance of the construct (Table 3). According to the cumulative percentages of the explained variance (Table 3), it can be seen the percentage of variance explained by each factor, as well as the extent that each factor explains the total variance of the questionnaire. Five factors account for approximately 72% of the total variance. As indicated, the five factors are: light physical violence, severe physical violence, emotional violence, verbal violence, and sexual violence. Table 3: the structure of factors and coefficients obtained from factor analysis Factors    Exploratory Factor Analysis     Eigen value    The percentage of explained variance    The cumulative percentage of explained  variance Factor 1    24.01    24.01    24.01 Factor 2    39.21    15.20    39.21 Factor 3    53.79    14.58    53.79 Factor 4    64.44    10.64    64.44 Factor 5    72.55    8.11    72.55 Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to estimate the reliability (internal consistency) of the questionnaire (Table 5). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the whole questionnaire is 0.86 The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the other subscales ranges from 0.80 to 0.84. N    α    Sub Scales 5    0.80    Light physical violence 4    0.81    Severe physical violence 4    0.84    Emotional violence 3    0.81    Verbal violence 3    0.83    Sexual violence 19    0.86    The whole scale Discussion The purpose of this study was to construct and validate the Spouse abuse questionnaire in Tehran. This instrument was designed to measure violence among married men and women, although it seems to be more applicable to women. The questions cover the five factors of light physical violence, severe physical violence, emotional violence, sexual violence, and verbal violence. Compared to the published instruments such as Panaghi et al’s. (2017) questionnaire and the Qahari et al’s. (2006) spouse questionnaire, the diversity and breadth of the present questionnaire and its short form should be highlighted. In addition, Panaghi et al’s. (2017) questionnaire is mainly suggested for clinical settings and the sample is not randomly selected. Other instruments, including conflict resolution tactics, have not specifically taken different types of spouse abuse into consideration. The lack of appropriate instruments for measuring spouse abuse is one of the most important problems of researchers in this field. In addition to helping researchers with accurate statistics on the phenomena, using appropriate instruments can also play a significant role in preventing abuse and even helping victims of abuse and facilitate psychosocial interventions. Given the importance of this issue, one of the first requirements for interventions in the field of spouse abuse is having access to valid and reliable instruments that can properly measure this problem (according to behavioral and social science research studies), and the questions should be culturally appropriate to the target group and community. According to the results of this study, the spouse abuse questionnaire meets these criteria and assesses various aspects of spouse abuse, and it is recommended to be used as a suitable instrument in survey studies or to assess the effects of spouse abuse interventions. This study was conducted on a suitable sample size of married people with appropriate validity and reliability and covers a wide range of spouse abuse areas.  Its limitations include the failure to specify the cut-off point, so the precautions should be taken while using it for specific populations. Although it is quite appropriate to use exploratory factor analysis at this stage (constructing new instruments), confirmatory factor analysis and other types of analysis need to be used for later stages of instrument development (using it for different populations).