WITHDRAWN: Development and Validation of the Scale of Attitudes about Seeking Formal Help Among IPV Survivors

Background and Purpose: Seeking help from formal institutions (formal help-seeking) assists intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors avoid re-victimization and improve their well-being. Unfortunately, few survivors seek formal help. Although many factors deter help-seeking behaviors, a measure that assesses attitudes about seeking formal help among women who experience IPV is not available. As such, this study (1) sought to validate a newly developed scale of Attitudes about Seeking Formal Help among women experiencing IPV and (2) test its measurement equivalence across Latina and non-Latina and English and Spanish-speaking survivors.

Methods: Data were collected cross-sectionally through interviews with English-speaking (n=209) and Spanish-speaking (n=207) IPV survivors as part of a study aimed to validate economic and IPV related measures in English and Spanish. More than half (62%) of participants identified as Latina or Hispanic. The mean age of participants was 40, and one in three reported an annual household income of less than $10,000.

The scale was developed based on the IPV and help-seeking literature and focused on stigma related to IPV. The literature served as a large pool of existing attitudes to seeking help in the context of IPV, which defined the content of attitudes to seeking formal help construct. A team of experts provided feedback on re-wording and culling. Two native Spanish-speaker researchers, Peruvian and Colombian, translated the revised items independently and then as a team to address any translation discrepancies. The final version of the translated scale was also sent to a Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking social work researcher for review. The scale in English and Spanish was then sent to IPV service providers for further feedback.

An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to validate the scale. Multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) modeling was used to assess the measurement equivalence between Latina and non-Latina and English and Spanish-speaking IPV survivors. To further assess this scale’s construct validity, the correlation between this scale and fatalism and adherence to gender roles was tested.

Results: The EFA revealed a 10-item, single-factor solution (α=.83). Results from the CFA demonstrated good model fit (X²= 41.37; DF= 30, p=.081; CFI=.971; TLI=0.956; RMSEA=.043). Results from the MIMIC analysis indicated measurement equivalence in the overall scale across Latina and non-Latina and English and Spanish-speaking survivors (CFI=.948; TLI=0.927; RMSEA=.051). However, two items showed different functionality across the English and Spanish-speaking groups. The scale also demonstrated a statistically significant correlation to the fatalism and gender role constructs, showing further evidence of construct validity.

Conclusions and Implications: The Scale of Attitudes about Seeking Formal Help was developed and validated to use with women with IPV experiences. The scale will be helpful to use in secondary and tertiary IPV programming and overall efforts to address the consequences of IPV. However, caution is recommended if using this newly developed scale to compare scores across English and Spanish-speaking survivors as two items were shown to differ. Thus, further exploration is needed to better understanding whether the findings were due to trivial or systematic differences.