The Turkish validity and reliability study of the Proximal Antecedents to Violent Episodes Scale Victim Form (PAVEV)

Violence against women (VAW) is an important problem faced by women from different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. Varying explanations have been offered for this problem which has negative effects on people and society. Antecedents predicting the violent episode are prominent among various parameters of VAW. Proximal Antecedents to Violent Episodes (PAVE) form scrutinizes these antecedents from perpetrator's perspective. The aim of the current study was to conduct the Turkish adaptation of PAVE from victims' perspective. PAVE Victim Version (PAVEV), The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Personality Beliefs Questionnaire-Short From (PBQ-SF) and Two-dimensional Social Desirability Scale (SDS) were administered to 101 women whose ages range between 18 and 67 years (M = 38.88). The form obtained after factor analysis revealed that physical violence occurs following “interaction” (PAVEV-I; Cronbach Alpha = .96) and “fidelity” (PAVEV-F; Cronbach Alpha = .87) disagreements. PAVEV, PAVEV-I and PAVEV-F scores were correlated with CTS physical violence scores; PAVEV and PAVEV-I scores were correlated with CTS injury scores, but none of PAVEV scores were correlated with BSI, PBQ-SF or SDS subscale scores. Shelter-residing women got higher subscale and total scores than those residing-with-partners. Findings revealed that PAVEV is a reliable and valid measure showing coherence with the conceptualization of the original perpetrator scale. Nevertheless, future studies should analyze PAVEV total score and its subscales simultaneously in couples.