Development of the woman abuse screening tool

Abstract

<p>Researchers reported that 25%-33% of female trauma victims had injuries caused by battering. More than one million women per year seek medical care for injuries caused by battering. Of those who seek medical care, only one in ten is officially identified as a battered woman. Women are routinely screened for a variety of problems, conditions, or medical disorders, but violence is not included. An important issue related to identifying battered women is the lack of an appropriate comprehensive screening tool. The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) determine whether using a comprehensive abuse screening tool results in an increased identification rate of battered women greater than what has been reported in other studies; (b) identify if verbal/emotional abuse are precursors of physical violence; and (c) test specific psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 438 women ranging in age from 18 to 78 years. Twenty-six percent of the women reported being in abusive relationships. The results of the paired-samples sign test indicated that verbal/emotional abuse are precursors of physical abuse at a.05 significance level. The specific psychometric properties tested were internal consistency, content validity, and discriminant validity. The results of data analysis indicated that the WAST is highly reliable (Chronbach's alpha =.93 for physical abuse and.91 for verbal/emotional abuse). Factor analysis and examination of content by experts in the field suggest good content validity. The results of discriminant analysis indicated that the WAST is able to discriminate between battered and non-battered women. The analysis correctly classified 94.44% of the cases. The results of this study may help health care professionals identify battered women and determine when women are at risk of being abused.</p>