Sexual Abuse Questionnaire: A Preliminary Examination of a Time and Cost Efficient Method in Evaluating the Presence of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Adult Patients

• NCJ Number: 210250
• Journal: Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: 2005 Pages: 1-26
• Author(s): Timothy G. Lock; Donald J. Levis; Patricia A. Rourke
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Test/Measurement
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper presents the results of two studies that evaluated a newly constructed self-report instrument, the Sexual Abuse Questionnaire (SAQ), which was designed as a brief screening device for identifying a childhood sexual abuse history, defined as a self-reported experience of sexual contact that occurred at or before the age of 15 with an adult 5 or more years the child's senior.

Abstract

The two studies trace the evolution of the SAQ from the original version, which consisted of 103 true/false items to its current form, which consists of 45 true/false items, which takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. The original version of the SAQ was tested with 533 undergraduate students (311 females and 222 males). Participants who completed the SAQ during Trial-1 were contacted by phone and invited to participate in a second testing session (Trial-2), which was conducted 1 month after the first test. In addition to the SAQ-1, participants completed two additional questionnaires, the TSC-40 and the Keane et al.'s (1984) PTSD subscale. The test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the SAQ-I were examined with the subset of 244 participants who completed Trial-2. The second study replicated and extended the first study. In addition to again establishing internal consistence, test-retest reliability, criterion related, and concurrent validity, the second study sought to establish discriminant validity for the SAQ-I. Participants consisted of 519 undergraduate students (325 females and 194 males) enrolled in an introductory psychology course. To increase the power of the item analyses, the replicated and nonreplicated items from the two studies were combined. Forty-five items met test-retest criterion for inclusion of reliably discriminating between groups and obtaining a test-retest reliability of .45 or greater. In addition, 43 of these items were found to reliably discriminate between abused and nonabused participants in both studies. 2 tables and 49 references