Citation

Dutton DG. J. Fam. Violence 1995; 10(2): 203-221.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12295368

Abstract

A brief self-report is described that assesses propensity for male abusiveness of a female partner in intimate relationships. The Propensity for Abusiveness Scale (PAS) items is nonreactive and contains no explicit reference to abusive behavior. The scale has good psychometric properties, with Cronbach's alpha of 0.91 and three distinct factors. Data were provided by 140 men in treatment for wife assault and by 63 of their female partners. In addition, 44 demographically matched men and 33 of their partners were evaluated. The scale was validated against reports of abuse victimization by men's female partners using the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (Tolman, 1988). The scale correlated 0.51 with women's reports of male Domination/Isolation tactics, and 0.47 with Emotional Abuse scale scores. A discriminant function for high versus low abusiveness indicated that the PAS correctly classified 82.2% of men into high (one standard deviation below) abusiveness. Social desirability corrections do not significantly change the trend of correlations of the PAS with criterion variables. A cross validation of the scale supported the initial results. The scale also correlates significantly with physical abuse.

Language: en