Validation of the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory

Richard M. Tolman, University of Michigan

Family Violence Research Conference, July 23, 1995

The Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory is a 58 item instrument designed to measure the level of psychological maltreatment of women by their male partners in intimate relationships.

• Originally intended for use in clinical programs to assess change in batterers' behavior, therefore comprehensiveness desired.
• Use in research to some extent limited by length of the measure.

Previous work (Tolman, 1989):

• Demonstrated a high rate of endorsement of the items by battered women and men who batter.
• Established a factor structure which resulted in two reliable subscales labeled Dominance-Isolation and Emotional-Verbal.
• Men underreported psychological maltreatment when partners' reports used as criterion.

Current Study (Tolman, 1995):

• Establish validity of the scale.
• Does it successfully discriminate between battered and non-battering relationships, and between battered and distressed relationships?
• Does it correlate with other measures of psychological maltreatment?
• Create a short-version of the scale for use in research.