NCJ Number
223983
Journal
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: 2008 Pages: 1-21
Date Published
2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article describes the development and initial validation of the Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale (DVMAS).
Abstract
The study indicates that the DVMAS has excellent reliability, good face and content validity, as well as good indications of convergent, construct, and known groups validity. The study also indicates that domestic violence myths serve individual psychological functions as well as social functions related to blaming the victim, exonerating the perpetrator, and minimizing the violence. Despite the important contributions of Burt's (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, no similar valid and reliable measure of domestic violence myths currently exists. This article describes the development and initial validation of the DVMAS and recounts a two-part examination. In the first study, an initial pool of 80 items was evaluated and an 18-item instrument was constructed from a sample of 345 respondents at a New England college. The final response rate on this usable sample was close to 20 percent. A second validation was performed to arrive at the results detailed, which additionally provided evidence that divergent validity was only partially supported. In this validation, a usable sample of 284 respondents, not included in the first study, was used from the same college, with an adjusted response rate of 30 percent. Four scales measuring attitudes towards women and attitudes toward violence against women were used to assess convergent validity. Tables, references, and appendix