BACKGROUND: Violence against women has been classified as a worldwide public health problem. There are no assessment instruments of attitudes toward violence in couples adapted to the culture and the Spanish spoken in Colombia. The aim of the study is to adapt the Intimate Partner Violence Attitude Scales (IPVAS) and obtain validity evidence.
METHOD: Two studies were carried out. Study 1 integrates expert appraisal evidence of content validity with psychometrics of the internal structure and evidence of the relationships between IPVAS measures and theoretically related variables by analyzing responses from a sample of the general population. Using a cross-validation approach, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed in study 2 to test the factor structure proposed in study 1. In addition, evidence of relationships with other variables was provided by analyzing data from another general population sample.
RESULTS: The results from study 2 support a two-dimensional structure with Abuse and Violence subscales for the Colombian IPVAS.
CONCLUSIONS: A partial construct overlap was found between the original IPVAS and the Colombian IPVAS adapted to the culture and the Spanish spoken in Colombia.