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Index of Spousal Abuse

The Index of Spousal Abuse is a 30 item self reported scale to measure physical and non-physical spouse abuse. It is used by clinicians to evaluate change in the degree or severity of both physical nonphysical abuse as perceived by female.

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female

Age Range: Adults

Items:

1. My partner belittles me. (1)
2. My partner demands obedience to his whims. (17)
3. My partner becomes surly and angry if I tell him he is drinking too much. (15)
4. My partner makes me perform sex acts that I do not enjoy or like. (50)
5. My partner becomes very upset if dinner, housework or laundry is not done when he thinks it should be. (4)
6. My partner is jealous and suspicious of my friends. (8)
7. My partner punches me with his fists. (75)
8. My partner tells me I am ugly and unattractive. (26)
9. My partner tells me I really couldn't manage or take care of myself without him. (8)
10. My partner acts like I am his personal servant. (20)
11. My partner insults or shames me in front of others. (41)
12. My partner becomes very angry if I disagree with his point of view. (15)
13. My partner threatens me with a weapon. (82)
14. My partner is stingy in giving me enough money to run our home. (12)
15. My partner belittles me intellectually. (20)
16. My partner demands that I stay home to take care of the children. (14)
17. My partner beats me so badly that I must seek medical help. (98)
18. My partner feels that I should not work or go to school. (21)
19. My partner is not a kind person. (13)
20. My partner does not want me to socialize with my female friends. (18)
21. My partner demands sex whether I want it or not. (52)
22. My partner screams and yells at me. (38)
23. My partner slaps me around my face and head. (80)
24. My partner becomes abusive when he drinks. (65)
25. My partner orders me around. (29)
26. My partner has no respect for my feelings. (39)
27. My partner acts like a bully towards me. (44)
28. My partner frightens me. (55)
29. My partner treats me like a dunce. (29)
30. My partner acts like he would like to kill me. (80)

Response Options:
Never – 1
Rarely - 2
Occasionally – 3
Frequently – 4
Very Frequently – 5

Note - numbers in parenthesis indicate weight

Scoring Procedures

Items are summed and two scores are computed, one for physical abuse (ISA-P)and one for nophysical abuse (ISA-NP). Both the ISA-P and ISA-NP scores range from 0 to 100 where a low score indicates the relative absence of abuse and the higher scores represent the presence of a greater degree or amount of abuse. If any item is left blank or scored outside the range of 1-5, then the item weight is changed to 0 and the item score is changed to 0.

Original Citation

Hudson, W. W., & Mcintosh, S. R. (1981). The assessment of spouse abuse: Two quantifiable dimensions. Journal of Marriage and Family, 43(3), 873-888


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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