Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA)

 

NOTE: The index is copyright 1978 by the authors.

 

The questionnaire consists of 30 statements about the person's partner.

 

where:

• The questions do not appear to be gender neutral.

• The questions do not seem to include passive aggressive behaviors (withholding behaviors, etc.)

• In the spreadsheet I modified the statements to handle same gender relationships. Question 20 was a problem to get the proper wording.

 

Statement	Weight
1	1
2	17
3	15
4	50
5	4
6	8
7	75
8	26
9	8
10	20
11	41
12	15
13	82
14	12
15	20
16	14
17	98
18	21
19	13
20	18
21	52
22	38
23	80
24	65
25	29
26	39
27	44
28	55
29	29
30	80

 

Responses are by a 5 point Likert scale graded from 1 to 5 (never, rarely, occasionally, frequently, very frequently).

 

points for each item =

= (item weight) * (score for response)

 

total points for physical abuse =

= SUM(3, 4, 7, 13, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30)

 

total points for nonphysical abuse =

SUM(1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 29)

 

index for physical abuse when all items answered =

= (((total points for physical abuse) / 682) – 1) * 25

 

index for nonphysical abuse when all items answered =

= (((total points for nonphysical abuse) / 387) – 1) * 25

 

where:

• The indices are based on equations 3, 4 and 5 on pages 874-875.

• 682 is the minimum total points for the physical abuse subscore.

• 387 is the minimum total points for the nonphysical abuse subscore.

 

Interpretation:

• minimum index = 0

• maximum index = 100

• The higher the score the greater the relative degree or amount of abuse.