NCJ Number
156226
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1995) Pages: 203-221
Date Published
1995
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The propensity for male abusiveness of a female partner in intimate relationships is assessed.
Abstract
This article describes a brief self-report assessment scale. The scale items are nonreactive, containing no explicit reference to abusive behavior. The scale has good psychometric properties and was validated against reports of abuse victimization by men's female partners using the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory. The scale correlated with women's reports of male domination/isolation tactics and with emotional abuse scale scores. A discriminant function for high v. low abusiveness indicated that the Propensity for Abusiveness Scale (PAS) correctly classified the majority of men into high or low abusiveness. Social desirability corrections do not alter significantly the pattern of correlations of the PAS with criterion variables. A cross-validation of the PAS scale supported the initial results. The PAS scale also correlates significantly with physical abuse. Tables, references