TY - JOUR PY - 2023// TI - Development and validation of the Economic Coercion Scale-20 (ECS-20): a short-form of the ECS-36 JO - PLoS one A1 - Miedema, Stephanie Spaid A1 - Cheong, Yuk Fai A1 - Naved, Ruchira Tabassum A1 - Yount, Kathryn M. SP - e0287963 EP - e0287963 VL - 18 IS - 10 N2 - The Economic Coercion Scale 36 (ECS-36) is a validated scale measuring women's exposure to economic coercion for low-income countries. A valid short form is needed to facilitate parsimonious measurement of economic coercion in general surveys or program evaluations. We used data from a probability sample of 930 married women 15-49 years in Matlab, Bangladesh. We selected 21 items from the ECS-36 based on theory, content coverage, and item and dimensional information. We evaluated external validity with measures of non-economic intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms. We tested measurement invariance of the short-form scale across participants and non-participants of microfinance programs. A final, 20-item scale captured husband's interference with wife's (1) acquisition of economic resources and (2) use or maintenance of economic resources. IRT results of the ECS-20 demonstrated precision over the higher range of the economic coercion trait. Tests of external validity confirmed expected correlations of the ECS-20 with measures of IPV and depressive symptoms. The ECS-20 was measurement invariant across groups of women who did and did not participate in microfinance programs. The ECS-20, a valid short-form of the ECS-36, is suitable for general surveys and monitoring potential adverse impacts of microfinance programs targeting women.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1932-6203 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287963 ID - ref1 ER -