Psychometric Properties of a Screening Instrument for Domestic Violence in a Sample of Iranian Women

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence against women is regarded as an important health problem among women and a serious concern in issues related to human rights. To date, a few screening tools for domestic violence exist for Iranian married women, but they assess only some of the domestic violence components. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to design and determine the validity and reliability of a screening instrument for domestic violence in a sample of Iranian women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a cross-sectional psychometric evaluation conducted on 350 married women in Ilam, Iran, in 2014. The samples were selected through multistage sampling and the main method was cluster sampling. A 20-item, self-administered questionnaire was validated by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). An Eigen value > 1 and a loading factor > 0.3 for each component were considered as indices for extracting domestic violence components. Reliability was calculated by test-retest and Cronbach’s alpha. Also, the content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR) were used to measure content validity. The data were analyzed using SPSS-13 and LISREL 8.8 software programs. RESULTS: The self-administered instrument was completed by 334 women. The CFA and EFA methods confirmed embedding items and the three-factor structure of the instrument including psychological, physical, and sexual violence, which explained 66% of the total variance of the domestic violence. The ICC and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were > 0.7 for the components of the questionnaire. The test-retest also revealed strong correlations for each of the domestic violence components (r > 0.6). CONCLUSIONS: The used instrument for measuring domestic violence had desirable validity and reliability and can be used as a suitable instrument in health and social researches in the local population.