Development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of the domestic violence--related financial issues scale (DV-FI)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs at disproportionate rates within impoverished groups of women and can include economic abuse as a form of psychological maltreatment. The current study developed a comprehensive assessment of the unique financial issues facing female victims of IPV using a sheltered sample (N = 113). An exploratory factor analysis (principal-axis factoring with varimax rotation) was conducted on 24 items of the newly developed Domestic Violence-Related Financial Issues Scale. Preliminary results supported five extracted factors, which accounted for approximately 53% of the total common variance in the women's responses. Psychometric properties of the instrument are presented.