Reliability and Validity of the Abusive Violence Scale

Abstract

Because of the stressful nature of the war in Vietnam, many Americans continue to be affected by their service. One aspect of war service, which may be significantly linked to the formation of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, is the degree of personal experience with abusive violence. To develop a reliable and valid measure of this construct, construction of an Abusive Violence Scale was undertaken. In the current study, the Abusive Violence Scale showed internal consistency (Cronbach α = .81) and validity, as indicated by significant Pearson correlations with two measures of combat exposure and measures of the PTSD dimensions of intrusiveness and avoidance. Validity was further supported by factor analysis that yielded only one factor, abusive violence.

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