Objective: Victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) often fear their intimate partners and the abuse they perpetrate against them. Fear in the context of IPV has been studied for decades yet, we lack a rigorously validated measure. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the psychometric properties of a multi-item scale measuring fear of an abusive male partner and/or the abuse he perpetrates.
Method: We used Item Response modeling to evaluate the psychometric properties of a scale measuring women's fear of IPV by their male partner across two distinct samples: 1) a calibration sample of 412 women and 2) a confirmation sample of 298 women.
Results: Results provide a detailed overview of the psychometric functioning of the Intimate Partner Violence Fear-11 Scale. Items were strongly related to the latent fear factor, with discrimination values universally above a = 0.80 in both samples. Overall, the IPV Fear-11 Scale is psychometrically robust across both samples. All items were highly discriminating and the full scale was reliable across the range of the latent fear trait. Reliability was exceptionally high for measuring individuals experiencing moderate to high levels of fear. Finally, the IPV Fear-11 Scale was moderately to strongly correlated with depression symptoms, posttraumatic stress symptoms and physical victimization.
Conclusions: The IPV Fear-11 Scale was psychometrically robust across both samples and was associated with a number of relevant covariates. Results support the utility of the IPV Fear-11 Scale for assessing fear of an abusive partner among women in relationships with men.
Keywords: Item response theory; domestic violence; fear; partner violence; validation.