Measuring Intimate Partner Abuse. A Review of Behavioral Assessment Tools

Present review carries out a systematic analysis on 54 validated behavioral assessment tools devoted to intimate partner violence (a total of 80 studies were included). Several weaknesses regarding the construction of these tools were found, such as high variability of items referred to different types of violence (number, categories and content) and gaps in providing psychometric information on structure (25 % of cases), internal consistency (10%) and criterial validity (35%). Concerning samples, it was found that 50% of instruments had been developed only for females, with 47 studies (59 %) regarding women exclusively as victims and men as aggressors; only three instruments were developed for adolescents and youth adults; and a minority of instruments were validated in more than one language and country. Implications of these biases and weaknesses are discussed, providing a guide to the selection of tools and identifying new directions for the development of new instruments.