Toward a Contextually Valid Assessment of Partner Violence: Development and Psycho-Sociometric Evaluation of the Gendered Violence in Partnerships Scale (GVPS).

Katharina Goessmann,Frank Neuner,Hawkar Ibrahim,Laura B Saupe

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.607671

Abstract

This article presents a new measure for intimate partner violence (IPV), the Gendered Violence in Partnerships Scale (GVPS). The scale was developed in the Middle East with the aim to contribute to the global perspective on IPV by providing a contextual assessment tool for partner violence against women in violent-torn settings embedded in a patriarchal social structure. In an effort to generate a scale including IPV items relevant to the women of the population, a pragmatic step-wise procedure, with focus group discussions and expert panels, was performed. The study’s analyses resulted in an 18-item checklist featuring four subscales of the GVPS that are based on a new typology of male-to-female partner violence presenting an alternative to the commonly used classification by type of abuse (i.e., physical, psychological, sexual acts). Therein, dominating behaviors, existential threats, impulsive aggression, and aggravated physical assault were identified as reflective of the lived realities of women in the war-torn Middle East, which was confirmed in factor analysis. The scale’s psychometric properties were assessed with data from 1,009 displaced women in Iraq, and associations with measures of psychopathology were determined. Implications for IPV assessment and prevention possibilities in humanitarian contexts and beyond are discussed.

Highlights

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is an ongoing global human rights issue that brings about a wide range of devastating effects on the health and wellbeing of individuals as well as societies at large (Heise and García-Moreno, 2002; Bonomi et al, 2006; Ellsberg and Emmelin, 2014)
The first step of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) included all 23 items initially derived from the focus group discussions and resulted in a model with inadequate fit (CFI = 0.85, Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.089 [90%-CI = 0.085 −0.092, PCLOSE = 0.00], SRMR = 0.06)
We developed the scale in a specific context, and the test of the Gendered Violence in Partnerships Scale (GVPS) in other social and cultural settings is still pending, the GVPS items cover a variety of violent acts potentially relevant to the lived realities of many women worldwide and offer possibilities to investigate conditions and circumstances of intimate partner violence (IPV)

Summary

Introduction

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is an ongoing global human rights issue that brings about a wide range of devastating effects on the health and wellbeing of individuals as well as societies at large (Heise and García-Moreno, 2002; Bonomi et al, 2006; Ellsberg and Emmelin, 2014). IPV is a multifaceted phenomenon that can manifest in a myriad of often co-occurring forms, including physical, verbal, and sexual behaviors It occurs across all social, religious, and cultural contexts (Krane, 1996; Ellsberg et al, 2015), with 30% of all women worldwide reporting having experienced physical or sexual forms of IPV during their lifetime (Devries et al, 2013). Stigmatization and victim-blaming due to socially embedded gender inequality and inadequate support systems seem to hinder the reporting of IPV incidents (Overstreet et al, 2019). Given such challenges, underreporting is likely, and getting help is difficult for many affected women worldwide

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