Reliability and validity of a measure of sexual and physical abuse histories among women with serious mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to describe a standardized questionnaire of histories of abuse among women with serious and persistent mental illness, and to assess its test-retest reliability and its validity.


METHODS
Seventy women enrolled in an outpatient clinic were asked about childhood histories of physical and sexual abuse in a structured clinical interviews at two times.


RESULTS
Test-retest reliability yielded a Kappa of .63 for the measure of physical abuse, and .82 for the measure of sexual abuse. Validity, assessed as consistency with an independent clinical assessment, showed 75% agreement for reports of physical abuse, and 93% agreement for reports of sexual abuse.


CONCLUSIONS
Childhood histories of physical and sexual abuse can be reliably and validly assessed in women with severe and persistent mental illness using a standardized instrument.
Meyer
I H
IH
Columbia University, School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA.
Muenzenmaier
K
K
Cancienne
J
J
Struening
E
E
D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires