Sunday, 16 January 2005 - 10:30 AM

This presentation is part of: Intimate Partner Violence

Validation of the Checklist of Controlling Behaviors (CCB): A New Domestic Violence Assessment Instrument

While significant headway has been reached in the definition and measurement of sexual assault and rape, similar findings have continued to elude consensus building with respect to female survivors of domestic violence. A number of problems including definitional variations, population and sample size, and differing origins of data are some of many issues continue to make researching this area a challenge. To meet the challenges identified above, the proposed presentation describes (a) validation and (b) potential usages of the Checklist of Controlling Behaviors (CCB), a new instrument designed to define and measure domestic violence. Derived from clinical observation and current theories of domestic violence that support the construction of power and control, the CCB uses victim report to identify the intensity and frequency of relationship violence. The CCB is an 84 item instrument divided into ten subscales including: (1) physical abuse, (2) sexual abuse, (3) male privilege, (4) isolation, (5) minimizing and denying, (6) blaming, (7) intimidation, (8) threats, (9) emotional abuse, and (10) economic abuse. CCB questions are answered using a 3-point scale with 1 representing “never”, 2 representing “once in a while”, and 3 representing “a lot”. To determine validity of the CCB, 2,135 female volunteers taking refuge at a domestic violence shelter between the years 1998 and 2002 were administered the instrument within the first 24 hours of their arrival to the shelter. Their ages ranged from 16 to 68 and their demographic variables were representative of the general population. Because of the theoretic and practical overlap of the 10 subscales, validity testing was not conducted using each of the 84-items. Instead analysis was performed on each individual subscale. Results of principal component analysis of the individual subscales revealed 1 component for each of the subscales with eigan values ranging between 3.243 and 5.796. Validity testing resulted in the elimination of 17 total items from the original 101-item document. The items eliminated represented either (a) theoretical overlaps of information or (b) items not answered by the majority of the subjects. Elimination of items that fit into the later category also met theoretical justification for elimination. This presentation will report on a number of important usages of the CCB in both the clinical and research setting. From a clinical perspective, social workers can use the CCB to assess subtleties in the client’s experience which helps the worker to both (a) better understand the client and (b) provide more accurately for their treatment needs. Additionally, the CCB can be used to help clients better understand their own experiences in shelter and non-shelter settings while at the same time identifying how their partner’s behavior is both controlling and abusive. In the research setting, the CCB can be used to study subtleties in the controlling behavior that women reporting violence experience. The CCB also provides further support for continued conceptual and definitional development how power and control are central to understanding a woman’s experience with violence.

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