Citation

Cook SL, Conrad L, Bender M, Kaslow NJ. Violence Vict. 2003; 18(6): 641-657.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta 30303, USA. scook@gsu.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15109118

Abstract

This study investigated the internal validity of the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) (Hudson & McIntosh, 1981) in a sample of 583 African American women who sought health care at a tertiary care hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Three models were tested with confirmatory factor techniques: (a) Hudson and McIntosh's original Index of Spouse Abuse two factor model; (b) Campbell, Campbell, Parker, and Ryan's three factor model (Campbell, Campbell, King, Parker, & Ryan, 1994); and (c) an alternative model of physical and nonphysical abuse. This alternative model is based in part on Tolman's conceptualization of psychological abuse as a construct comprised of two related but distinct factors: controlling and emotionally abusive behaviors (Tolman, 1999). Results show that the alternative model fits the data better than the first two models. Findings support the continued use of the ISA, but with proposed modifications.

Language: en