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Agonizing Uncertainty: The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Abuse Doubt Scale
Yael Lahav1, May Huberman1, Sarah Bøgelund Dokkedahl1,2
1Department of Occupational Therapy, Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
|October 21, 2025
Summary
Childhood abuse survivors may experience doubt regarding their experiences, themselves, and perpetrators. A new Abuse Doubt Scale (ADS) shows reliable psychometric properties for assessing this phenomenon.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Trauma Studies
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Childhood abuse (CA) can lead to distorted beliefs and doubt about the abuse, self, and perpetrator.
- This phenomenon, termed doubt regarding abuse-related appraisals (DARA), lacks empirical investigation.
- A new scale, the Abuse Doubt Scale (ADS), was developed to measure DARA.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Abuse Doubt Scale (ADS).
- To investigate the construct and criterion validity of the ADS in female childhood abuse survivors.
Main Methods:
- Two online survey studies were conducted with female childhood abuse survivors.
- Study 1 (N=155) involved administering the ADS to identify its factors.
- Study 2 (N=192) administered the ADS alongside measures of abuse characteristics, guilt, shame, dissociation, and PTSD symptoms for confirmatory factor analysis and validity testing.
Main Results:
- The ADS demonstrated a reliable three-factor structure: doubt regarding abuse, perpetrator, and self.
- Higher ADS scores were associated with abuse recurrence, perpetrator closeness/dependence, and parental perpetrator figures.
- ADS scores correlated significantly with guilt, shame, dissociation, and PTSD symptoms.
Conclusions:
- The Abuse Doubt Scale (ADS) exhibits strong psychometric properties, including internal consistency and validity.
- The ADS is a valid tool for measuring doubt regarding abuse-related appraisals in survivors.
- Further longitudinal research is recommended to assess test-retest reliability and criterion validity.
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