Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Questionnaire to Assess Attitudes Towards Invisible Gender-Based Violence (Q-AIGV)

Abstract

Objective: To develop and psychometrically evaluate a questionnaire to assess attitudes towards invisible gender-based violence (Q-AIGV).

Background: Invisible gender-based violence is defined as discriminatory attitudes and beliefs towards women that are culturally accepted and normalised in society.

Methodology: This is a cross-sectional descriptive observational study. The development of the initial version of the questionnaire, a pilot study (N = 63) and a final validation study (N = 1264) were carried out. Reliability, validity, stability and readability were tested.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the Q-AIGV is composed of 15 items distributed in three factors. Known-groups analysis detected significant differences in two groups with different characteristics (age and relationship duration). Criterion validity indicated the existence of a moderate and significant correlation (r = 0.469; p < 0.001) between the mean score of the Q-AIGV and the ‘Scale of Attitudes towards Gender-based Violence’. The Q-AIGV’s content validity index (CVI-t = 0.96) and internal consistency (α = 0.906) were excellent.

Conclusion: The Q-AIGV showed very good results for reliability, validity, stability and readability. This suggests that the Q-AIGV could be a good tool for assessing attitudes towards invisible gender-based violence.