Psychometric properties of Haj-Yahia's questionnaire of violence against women in a sample of married women in Tehran, Iran

Abuse against women causes great suffering for the victims and is an important health problem among women. To date, a few screening instruments for wife abuse exist for married women in Iran, but they only assess some of the wife abuse components. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Haj-Yahia's Questionnaire in a sample of married women residing in Tehran. This is a cross-sectional study with a population consisting of married women in Tehran, among which 471 individuals were selected using convenience sampling method. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated using face validity, content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and stability. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed using the weighted least square mean and variance adjusted. We performed confirmatory factor analysis using Mplus version 8 software and for other calculations, we used STATA V14. The quantitative results of face validity and content validity indicated that all items of the questionnaire were in acceptable range, and were retained in the study. In CFA results, the model fit indices were acceptable (TLI = 0.986, CFI = 0.987, RMSEA = 0.039 and SRMR = 0.057). Cronbach's alpha coefficient for psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and economic abuse were estimated 0.90, 0.93, 0.79, and 0.78 respectively, and an alpha of 0.95 was found for the total questionnaire. The intra-cluster correlation index was 0.98. Findings showed that the Persian version of the questionnaire of violence against women made it possible to evaluate various dimensions of violence using 4 factors and showed good construct validity and internal reliability in the female population in Iran; therefore, it can be used in future studies.