(WITHDRAWN) Korean Version of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire(JVQ): Internalization Problems

Background and Purpose: The experience of multiple victimizing life events is known to be particularly harmful and to have an accumulative effect on mental health. Therefore, instruments that measure the whole range of victimization a person is exposed to are widely needed. The main objective of this study was to confirm the structure of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ screening version) proposed by Finkelhor and his colleagues (2005) and to explore its psychometric properties in a sample of adolescents who were runaway and stayed at youth shelters in South Korea.

Methods: The data used in this study were conducted through direct survey at 53 among 130 shelters nationwide in South Korea in 2019. The analytic sample consists of 316 aged 14 to 24 years (57.3% boys and 42.7% girls) were recruited. The pattern of item endorsement was examined and a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine the fit of the conceptual model. The psychometric properties analyzed were internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) for the entire JVQ and for each of its eight areas, the inter-correlations between these areas, and the instrument’s criterion validity. This study completed the IRB approval for the ethical review of the present study.

Results: The pattern of JVQ item endorsement was very good. The conceptual model proposed by Finkelhor and his colleagues was confirmed empirically for preceding year victimization data. The total JVQ achieved a good Cronbach’s alpha for both the preceding-year and lifetime measures. Cronbach’s alpha for the different areas of victimization ranged from .46 to .78. Kendall’s tau inter-correlations between areas were positive and nearly all of them were significant. Criterion validity, based on correlations between JVQ areas and the subscale of Youth Self Report (YSR), was low, indicating a positive association between victimization and psycho-pathological symptoms in runaway youth living in shelters.

Discussion and Implications:This study provides preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of the Korean JVQ. Also, it finds that runaway youth suffering from victimization were more likely to experience trauma symptoms. This study suggests that such a scale is useful for measuring and identifying the victimization patterns among Korean adolescents. Furthermore, the validation of the Korean JVQ can lead to more multi-sites and cross-cultural studies.