Abstract
BackgroundThe use of electronic media is widespread among young people and is a potential tool for the perpetration of intimate-partner violence (IPV) towards women. The aim of this study is to validate two questions focused on harassment and control by electronic tools (HCE-2) as a screening tool for the detection of IPV in young women.MethodsThe data source was the third Community of Madrid IPV survey in 2014. The screening tool consisted of two questions with five possible answers prepared by a group of experts. As the gold standard we used the definition of intimate partner violence based on a 26- question survey. The validity indices (with 95% confidence intervals) were compared between two age groups: 18–24 and 25–29 years.ResultsSix hundred ninty-four women were sampled. The response rate was 68.7%, and 477 surveys were analyzed. The prevalence of IPV was 10.7% (95% CI: 8.2–13.8). HCE-2 was positive in 5.9% (95% CI: 4.1–8.4). The overall efficiency of the test was 93.5% (95% CI: 91.1–96.7), sensitivity 47.1% (95% CI: 33.7–60.8), specificity 99.1% (95% CI: 97.5–99.6), and positive predictive value 85.7% (95% CI: 67.1–94.6). The best validity indices of the questionnaire were observed in women aged 18 to 24 years: overall efficiency of the test 95.1% (95% CI: 92.6–97.7), sensitivity 62.5% (95% CI: 44.5–77.6), specificity 99.6% (95% CI: 97.0–99.9), and positive predictive value 95.2% (95% CI: 71.7–99.4).ConclusionsThe existing need to improve the detection of IPV in young women and the good validity indices observed here justify the recommendation of the HCE-2 questionnaire as a screening tool in young women.
Highlights
The use of electronic media is widespread among young people and is a potential tool for the perpetration of intimate-partner violence (IPV) towards women
Despite the social changes that have occurred in recent decades, this type of violence is still present in all stages of life, with intimate-partner violence (IPV) being the most common form and young women being the most frequently affected demographic group [3]
The Harassment and control by electronic tools questionnaire (HCE-2) questionnaire was open to all women, without a filtering question, and all 477 women included in the analysis responded to it
Summary
The use of electronic media is widespread among young people and is a potential tool for the perpetration of intimate-partner violence (IPV) towards women. Gender-based violence is a social and health problem widely described in the literature and is recognized as a violation of basic human rights, with psychological and physical consequences for both the victim and their environment [1, 2]. Despite the social changes that have occurred in recent decades, this type of violence is still present in all stages of life, with intimate-partner violence (IPV) being the most common form and young women being the most frequently affected demographic group [3]. Electronic media have gained prominence in interpersonal communications, especially in youths, constituting a new possible mechanism for perpetrating violence [5]. The different types of violence are not exclusive; they often coexist, and a correlation has been observed with cyberbullying in dating partners [6,7,8]
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