Table 3

Cronbach's α of the VAWI psychological, physical and sexual violence scales and total scale, lifetime (N=573)

Scalesα if item deleted
Psychological violence
 Insulted me in a way that made me feel bad about myself0.75
 Belittled and humiliated me in front of other people0.71
 Tried to scare and intimidate me on purpose (eg, by the way he/she looked at you, by yelling or smashing things)0.72
 Threatened to hurt me or someone I care about0.76
Total0.79
Physical violence
 Pushed or shoved me0.81
 Threw something at me that could have hurt me0.75
 Hit me with his/her fist or with some other object that could have hurt me0.73
 Kicked and dragged me and beat me up0.75
 Choked me or burnt me on purpose0.76
 Hurt me with a knife, a gun or some other weapon0.80
Total0.80
Sexual violence
 Demanded to have sex with me even though I did not want to (but did not use physical force)0.77
 Forced me to have sex against my will by using his/her physical strength (by hitting, holding me firmly or threatening me with a weapon)0.64
 Forced me to perform sexual acts that I experienced as degrading and/or humiliating0.54
Total0.72
Violence scale, total0.88
  • VAWI, Violence Against Women instrument.

  • Total scores of each subscale as well as for the total score of all sub-scales combined are boldfaced.