Escala de Abuso Economico: Validating the Scale of Economic Abuse-12 (SEA-12) in Spanish

Journal of Family Violence (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Language is a key consideration in the development of culturally-responsive interventions for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), and this includes not only the delivery of services, but also screening and evaluation materials. Given that Spanish is the most widely used language within the United States (U.S.) outside of English, it is important to ensure that measures of IPV are valid and reliable for use with Spanish-speaking survivors in the U.S. context. As such, the purpose of this study is to validate the Scale of Economic Abuse-12 for use with Spanish-speaking survivors. This study utilizes baseline data from 436 survivors of IPV who participated in a longitudinal, randomized controlled study evaluating a financial empowerment program. This included 201 participants that completed the survey in Spanish, and 235 participants that completed the survey in English. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test for measurement invariance across the Spanish and English language survey groups. After measurement invariance testing was completed, the reliability of the SEA-12 was examined for both groups. When examining the psychometric equivalence of the SEA-12 for both English and Spanish-speaking survivors of IPV, partial strict measurement invariance was achieved. The reliability of the scale and its subscales were also generally good. Results from this study demonstrated that the SEA-12 performed well with the Spanish-speaking survivors in this sample based in the U.S. As such, the Spanish translation of the SEA-12 can be recommended for use in research and practice with Spanish-speaking survivors within the U.S.

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Funding

This project was supported by The Allstate Foundation. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of The Allstate Foundation.

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Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Temple University, Ritter Annex Room 543, 1301 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Laura Johnson

  2. Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, USA

    Gretchen L. Hoge

  3. Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Kristina Nikolova

  4. University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Judy L. Postmus

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  4. Judy L. Postmus
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Appendix

Appendix

Escala de Abuso Economico-12

Voy a mencionar varias cosas que hacen algunos individuos para herir a su actual pareja o ex-pareja económicamente. ¿Puede decirme, basado en lo que mejor recuerde, con cuánta frecuencia su pareja o ex-pareja hizo algunas de las siguientes cosas en los pasados 12 meses? Sus respuestas pueden variar del 1–5. 1 = Nunca, 2 = Casi nunca, 3 = A veces, 4 = Con frecuencia, 5 = Con mucha frecuencia

No. Item Nunca (1) Casi nunca (2) A veces (3) Con frecuencia (4) Con mucha frecuencia (5)
1. Hacer cosas para impeder que usted vaya a su trabajo.      
2. La golpea si usted decía que tenía que ir a trabajar.      
3. La amenaza para hacerla irse de su trabajo.      
4. La ordena que renuncie su trabajo.      
5. Le obliga a pedirle dinero a él/ella.      
6. Demanda saber en qué se gasta el dinero.      
7. La obliga a proveerle recibos y/o el cambio del dinero que usted gastó.      
8. Le oculta información financiera de usted.      
9. Toma decisiones económicas importantes sin consultarle a usted primero.      
10. Gasta el dinero que usted necesitaba para pagar la renta y otras cuentas.      
11. La crea más deudas bajo su nombre al usar sus tarjetas de crédito o elevar la cuenta del teléfono.      
12. Hacer pagos tarde o no pagar la cuentas que estaban a nombre de usted o de ambos.      

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Johnson, L., Hoge, G.L., Nikolova, K. et al. Escala de Abuso Economico: Validating the Scale of Economic Abuse-12 (SEA-12) in Spanish. J Fam Viol (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-021-00251-y

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Keywords

  • Economic abuse
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Measurement invariance
  • Spanish translation