Citation

Hegarty K, Fracgp, Bush R, Sheehan MC. Violence Vict. 2005; 20(5): 529-547.

Affiliation

Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. k.hegarty@unimelb.edu.au

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16248489

Abstract

Absence of a well-validated comprehensive partner abuse questionnaire has been a major methodological issue in domestic violence research. A new multidimensional measure of partner abuse, the Composite Abuse Scale (CAS), has four dimensions: Severe Combined Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, and Harassment. A general practice patient sample (N = 1,836) has been used in the development and testing of CAS. Factor analyses in this current study confirmed the four dimensions from a preliminary nurses sample study and resulted in a final scale of 30 items consisting of acts of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. These four factors exhibited good internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha > 0.85) and the corrected item-total correlations were high (> 0.5). Evidence of criterion and construct validity is presented.