Development and validation of Karachi domestic violence screening scale [KDVSS]

ABSTRACT

Domestic violence is a serious public health problem. In order to identify and treat psychological consequences associated with domestic abuse. The health care providers should be screening patients for physical, psychological and sexual forms of intimate partner violence. To design a validated instrument for screening out victims of domestic violence in both genders. A form consisting of 77 statements was developed on the basis of an operational definition and literature review of domestic abuse. It was then distributed among 300 individuals. Each statement was to be rated on 7-point scale from strongly disagreeing to strongly agreeing with the statement. Chi-square and percentages were calculated for the data. The statements, which were rated towards the agreeing point by more than 75% of the respondents irrespective of the sex, were selected for KDVSS. For validity check KDVSS was conducted on 35 known victims of domestic abuse; for statistical reliability chi-squares and percent values were used. Experts in the field were approached for checking inter-rater reliability of KDVSS. Findings: Out of 77 statements 35 had the p value above than .05, which is statistically significant. More than 75% of the participants independent of sex rated these 35 statements towards agreeing continuum. These statements comprised the final KDVSS. 82% of the Known Victims' scored above the cutoff score on KDVSS, which is indicative of adequate validity of the scale. The statistical reliability of 0.11 being sensitive statistically significant. Raters had rated the items as appropriate and adequate. In view of simplicity of use, and specific characteristic of investigating the incidence of domestic abuse [physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse] the scale represents a useful additional tool for the screening domestic abuse and facilitating appropriate help to the victims