PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE OF CHINESE WIVES

The present studies aimed to facilitate understanding of psychological wife abuse in Chinese families by extending the generality of the Ind ex of Spouse Abuse (ISA) to Chinese. Study 1 examined the factorial va lidity of the original ISA using Chinese college students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis rejected the 2-factor structure of th e original ISA. Based on results of exploratory factor analysis, an al ternative 19-item Chinese ISA was devised, which showed satisfactory i nternal consistency and correlated with the original ISA and the Confl ict Tactics Scale (CTS). Study 2 aimed to determine the concurrent and construct validity of the Chinese ISA. Results showed that the scale could adequately differentiate between victims of wife abuse from thos e women who had no abuse experiences. It also correlated with the CTS, marital dissatisfaction, and negative mental health measures of gener al psychological symptoms, depression, and anxiety. The clinical cutti ng scores of the Chinese ISA were also determined to predict psycholog ical and physical wife abuse in Chinese families.