Violence Faite Aux Filles Dans le Contexte des Fréquentations À L'adolescence: Élaboration D'un Instrument (Viffa)

Abstract

Reports on the development and preliminary validation of an instrument, VEFFA (Violence faite aux Filles dans les Fréquentations á 1'Adolescence), on female victimization in the context of dating violence in adolescence. Objectives are twofold: to document the psychometric qualities of this self-report and to propose an instrument adapted to the context of young teens. Questioning in 2 phases is used to achieve proper understanding of the concept studied and to help select the partner to whom they refer in the second detailed phase. Girls were questioned on violence sustained and boys on violence inflicted. The total sample included 331 boys and 377 girls (mean age 14.6 yrs). The factorial analyses resulted in 4 slightly different factors for girls and boys. With regard to the girls, the factors included Verbal and Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Control through Jealousy and Sexual Abuse. With the boys, the factors were Psychological Abuse, Jealousy and Sexual Abuse, Severe Physical Abuse and Minor Physical Abuse. Validation studies indicate that the instrument has adequate psychometric qualities and is adapted to the context of adolescence. An innovative aspect is the place given to items concerning jealousy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)