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Intimate Partner Violence and Children's Health After Parental Separation: Development and Psychometric Testing of

Kathryn J Spearman1, Nancy Perrin1, Christina Bethell2

  • 1School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Child Maltreatment
|May 5, 2025
PubMed

Insights

New research introduces the HELP-T Scale to measure post-separation abuse (PSA) tactics in healthcare, legal, and economic domains. This validated instrument aids professionals in understanding and addressing risks to child health.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Public Health
  • Sociology

Background:

  • Intimate partner violence (IPV) can persist after separation, termed post-separation abuse (PSA).
  • Validated instruments are crucial for measuring PSA and mitigating risks to child health.
  • Existing measures may not adequately capture the multifaceted nature of PSA.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and validate a new scale, the Healthcare, Economic, and Legal Post-Separation Abuse and Coercive Tactics (HELP-T) Scale.
  • To assess the reliability and validity of the HELP-T Scale in a sample of maternal survivors experiencing PSA.
  • To provide professionals with a tool to measure and understand PSA tactics.

Main Methods:

  • Item generation through qualitative interviews with maternal survivors (N=33) and expert review.
  • Psychometric testing including exploratory factor analysis for construct validity and Cronbach's alpha for reliability on a sample of 497 maternal survivors.
  • Iterative principal factor analysis to identify subscales.

Main Results:

  • The HELP-T Scale comprises 22 items across three subscales: Healthcare PSA, Legal PSA, and Economic PSA.
  • The scale demonstrated strong reliability, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.82 to 0.89 for the subscales.
  • Preliminary psychometric properties indicate the scale effectively measures PSA tactics.

Conclusions:

  • The HELP-T Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring post-separation abuse.
  • The findings provide valuable insights for health and legal professionals to identify and address PSA.
  • This tool can contribute to better understanding and mitigating the impact of PSA on child health.

Keywords:
child exposureintimate partner violencemeasurementpost-separation abuseunmet health care needs

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