Validation of the Abuse Screening Inventory (ASI)

Abstract

Aims: To assess the test—retest reliability and concurrent validity of the Abuse Screening Inventory (ASI) in a female sample. Method: The ASI comprises 16 items concerning four kinds of abuse: psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, and abuse in healthcare. A randomized sample of 699 women answered the ASI once. Six months later 53 of them answered the ASI again and were interviewed. To assess concurrent validity, answers in the interviews were considered as the gold standard and the ASI as the diagnostic test. Results: The ASI presented good overall test—retest reliability ranging from 81% to 96% for separate items. The ASI separated very well abused from non-abused women. No false positive answers were found. Sensitivity ranged from 72% to 82% for items concerning abuse. Conclusion: The ASI is a short abuse screening questionnaire that had acceptable validity and test—retest reliability in a random female Swedish sample.

Keywords

Abuse screening questionnaire validity test—retest reliability

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Krug EG , Dahlberg LL , Mercy JA , Zwi AB , Lozano R , editors. World report on violence and health. Geneva : World Health Organization; 2002 .

Ellsberg M. , Heise L. , Pena R. , Agurto S. , Winkvist A. Researching domestic violence against women: Methodological and ethical considerations . Stud Fam Plan 2001;32:1—16.

Straus MA Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The conflict tactics (CT) scales . J Marriage Fam 1979:75—88.

Hudson WW , Mcintosh SR The assessment of spouse abuse: Two quantifiable dimensions. J Marriage Fam 1981:873—89.

Marshall LL Development of the severity of violence against women scales. J Fam Violence 1992;7:103—19.

McFarlane J. , Parker B. , Soeken K. , Bullock L. Assessing for abuse during pregnancy: Severity and frequency of injuries and associated entry into prenatal care. JAMA 1992;267: 3176—8.

Sanders B. , Becker-Lausen E. The measurement of psychological maltreatment: Early data on the child abuse and trauma scale. Child Abuse Negl 1995 ;19:315—23.

Leserman J. , Drossman DA , Li Z. The reliability and validity of a sexual and physical abuse history questionnaire in female patients with gastrointestinal disorders. Behav Med 1995;21: 141—50.

Tolman RM The validation of the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory . Violence Vict 1999;14:25—37.

10.

Brown JB , Schmidt G. , Lent B. , Sas G. , Lemelin J. Screening for violence against women: Validation and feasibility studies of a French screening tool. Can Fam Physician 2001;47: 988—95.

11.

Swahnberg K. , Wijma B. The NorVold Abuse Questionnaire (NorAQ): Validation of new measures of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and abuse in the health care system among women . Eur J Public Health 2003;13:361—6.

12.

Wijma K. , Söderquist J. , Björklund I. , Wijma B. Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder among ynaecological patients with a history of sexual and physical abuse. J Interpers Violence 2000;15:944—58.

13.

Wijma B. , Schei B. , Swahnberg K. , Hilden M. , Offerdal K. , Pikarinen U. , et al. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in patients visiting gynaecology clinics: A Nordic cross-sectional study. Lancet 2003;361:2107—13.

14.

Wijma B. , Schei B. , Swahnberg K. NorAQ. The NorVold Abuse Questionnaire. Report No. 2. Linköping: Division of Gender and Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University; 2004.

15.

SPSS. SPSS Base 9.0. Applications Guide. Chicago: SPSS Inc; 1999.

16.

McKie L. Review article: Gender, violence and health care: Implications for research, policy and practice. Sociol Health Illn 2003;25:120—31.

17.

Wathen CN , MacMillan HL Prevention of violence against women. Recommendation statement from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. JAMC 2003;169: 582—4.

18.

Taket A. , Nurse J. , Smith K. , Watson J. , Shakespeare J. , Lavis V. , et al. Routinely asking women about domestic violence in health settings . Br Med J 2003;327:673—6.

19.

Gorey KM , Leslie DR The prevalence of child sexual abuse: Integrative review adjustment for potential response and measurement biases. Child Abuse Negl 1997;21:391—8.