Development and initial validation of a scale to measure emotional abuse among school children aged 13-15 years in Sri Lanka.

OBJECTIVE To develop a scale to measure emotional abuse among school children aged 13-15 years in Sri Lanka that can be used in field settings. METHOD Emotional abuse was defined based on available literature. Review of literature and discussions with a panel identified 85 items indicating abusive behaviors. Content validity and social acceptability were achieved by getting the views of this same panel and parents, respectively. Item analysis and assessment of validity were carried out based on the responses to the draft instrument by 105 children aged 13-15 years attending a school in an urban slum area. The test-retest reliability of the scale was assessed using the responses from 144 students from a different school. Criterion validity was established by comparing the independent assessments of a psychiatrist for the presence or absence of emotional abuse with the respective scores of the children on the scale. RESULTS The scale developed to assess emotional abuse included 46 items having a Cronbach alpha of .89. The test-retest reliability was .73. A cutoff score of 95 was identified at a sensitivity of 76.9% and a specificity of 51.4%. CONCLUSIONS A scale that had a satisfactory level of reliability and validity was socially acceptable, which could be used in school settings in Sri Lanka was developed to enable identification of emotional abuse among school children aged 13-15.