Current methodological trends in the analysis, assessment, and evaluation of intimate partner violence against women
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9th European Congress of Methodology (EAM2020-2021)
Valencia, July 21-23, 2021
Pre-Congress Workshops (July 19-20, 2021)
Current methodological trends in the analysis, assessment, and
evaluation of intimate partner violence against women
CHAIR(S): Celia Serrano-Montilla, Department of Methodology for Behavioral
Science, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Manuel Martín-Fernández, Department of Social and Methodological Psychology,
Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
Email: celiaserrano@ugr.es
Intimate partner violence against women is a relevant public health and social problem.
It is the most frequent form of violence experienced by women, and its global
prevalence is around 30%. In Western societies the average prevalence is 23.8% (World
Health Organization, 2013). Researching this issue is a crucial step to gain a better
understanding of the problem and to develop intervention programs and strategies based
on scientific evidence. However, the study of intimate partner violence against women
presents some methodological challenges related to the development of adequate
measures, the assessment of its psychometric properties, and the analytical strategies
conducted to examine the data. The aim of this symposium is to address these
methodological challenges from both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The
works group in this symposium show the importance of using mixed methods to
develop adequate measures to assess the attitudes toward intervention in intimate
partner violence among law enforcers, the role of social desirability assessment in
psychological aggression, the advantages of Bayesian spatiotemporal modelling to map
the risk of this type of violence, the relevance of using meta-analysis to evaluate the
efficacy of intervention programs for male offenders, and the benefits of structural
equation modeling to identify key aspects in the willingness to intervene in cases of
intimate partner violence.
Keywords: Intimate partner violence against women, Assessment, Bayesian statistics,
Meta-analysis, Structural equation models9th European Congress of Methodology (EAM2020-2021)
Valencia, July 21-23, 2021
Pre-Congress Workshops (July 19-20, 2021)
TITLE: Improving definition of police attitudes toward intervention in intimate
partner violence against women in the Spanish context: A qualitative approach
Authors: Celia Serrano-Montilla, Department of Methodology for Behavioral Science,
University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Luis-Manuel Lozano, Department of Methodology for Behavioral Science, University
of Granada, Granada, Spain
Jose-Luis Padilla, Department of Methodology for Behavioral Science, University of
Granada, Granada, Spain
Purpose. Lack of suitable instruments prevent from obtained data can be compared, as
well as the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the specific conclusions
drawn from the scores cannot be ensured. In the case of police officers’ attitudes toward
intervention in intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW), theoretical
approaches suggest two dimensions: proactive and reactive, being Chu and Sun’s
(2014) instrument the one, which collects certain evidences of validity around this
frame. However, this instrument was developed in China, a languge and culture steers
clear of Spanish context. The aim was to carried out the first phase in the development
of an instrument complementing and adapting semantic and syntactic definition of
police officers’ attitudes toward intervention in IPVAW to Spanish cultural and
linguistic context.
Method/Design. We used a qualitative design with several steps during the assembling
process. Firstly, we conducted a systematic review of the literature, using thematic
analysis to find dimensions and components of the construct and their determinants
more frequent. Secondly, we carried out focus groups with target population in order to
get more information about the construct in the specific context of investigation. The
thematic analysis of their speeches aimed to complement operational (i.e., behaviours,
and indicators) and syntactic definition of police officer’s attitudes toward intervention
in IPVAW within Spanish cultural and linguistic context. With scale specifications, we
outlined the first draft of the scale and check its comprehensibility, clarity, ambiguity,
and relevance to the lives of police officers though expert judgment.
Results. A total of 57 papers were analyzed and 6 focus groups were carried out,
including 36 police officers from different Spanish police forces and degree of IPVAW
specialization. Systematic review indicated six components (tolerance toward IPVAW,
minimal police involvement, unsupportive and supportive attitudes toward the legal
system and legislation against IPVAW, understanding of the complex nature of abuse,
and IPVAW as an important police task) which alluded to proactive and reactive
dimensions of police officers’ attitudes toward intervention in IPVAW, as well as 4
types of determinants (individual, situational, organizational, and societal). Focus
group extended semantic and syntactic definition, providing specific behaviour and its
indicators related to general dimensions and components. Likewise, content validity and
Kappa index provided content validity evidences.
Conclusions. Implications and the importance of using qualitative approach in the
assembling process were discussed.
Keywords. Qualitative data analysis, Qualitative research, Test development, Police
attitudes toward intervention in Intimate partner violence against women.9th European Congress of Methodology (EAM2020-2021)
Valencia, July 21-23, 2021
Pre-Congress Workshops (July 19-20, 2021)
TITLE: Social Desirability in Psychological Aggression against a Partner Studies:
A Scoping Review
Authors: M. Carmen Navarro, Department of Methodology for Behavioral Science,
University of Granada, Granada, Spain
José Luis Padilla, Department of Methodology for Behavioral Science, University of
Granada, Granada, Spain
Carolina Díaz-Piedra, Department of Methodology for Behavioral Science, University
of Granada, Granada, Spain
Purpose. Underreporting can undermine the assessment of “compromising” or socially
unaccepted behaviors. The improvement of the levels of underreporting in the context
of assessments of psychological aggressions against a partner is particularly difficult,
due to several factors, including social desirability bias. A valid social desirability
assessment could help to detect underreporting in this case. However, controversies
over the operationalization and the usefulness of the social desirability construct itself
have been a barrier to develop effective means to account for social desirability in
psychological aggression assessments.
Method/Design. Here, we are conducting a systematic search of the literature
evaluating how social desirability has been assessed in studies on psychological
aggression against a partner in the last 26 years. A scoping review approach was chosen
to provide an overview of the type, extent and quantity of the available research. Studies
were included if they used at least one self-administered measure to assess
psychological aggression against a partner in adult participants. A total of 391 studies
were included in the review.
Results. Only 5.63% of studies covered did assess social desirability. All of them used
traditional social desirability scales, which understand social desirability as a latent trait
and do not take into account the assessment context.
Conclusions. Trying to detect social desirability in studies that assess psychological
aggression is not frequent, despite the widespread recognition among both researchers
and clinicians of the importance of underreporting. Several implications and
recommendations for improving detection of social desirability when assessing
psychological aggression against a partner are discussed.
Keywords: social desirability, response biases, assessment, psychological aggression,
scoping review.9th European Congress of Methodology (EAM2020-2021)
Valencia, July 21-23, 2021
Pre-Congress Workshops (July 19-20, 2021)
TITLE: A methodological framework for assessing neighborhood effects on small-
area variations in intimate partner violence risk: The Bayesian spatio-temporal
modeling approach
Authors: Miriam Marco, Department of Social Psychology and Methodology,
Autonomous University of Madrid
Enrique Gracia, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Antonio López-Quílez, Department of Statistics and Operational Research, University
of Valencia
Marisol Lila, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Purpose. Bayesian hierarchical models have largely shown major advantages compared
to other approaches applied to spatio-temporal disease mapping and ecological
regression. These types of models allow for the inclusion of random effects, considering
both spatial and temporal autocorrelation as well as overdispersion. In this paper, we
used Bayesian hierarchical models to analyze the spatio-temporal distribution of
intimate partner violence (IPV).
Method/Design. The outcome variable was the number of IPV protection orders from
2011 to 2018 in Valencia, Spain (n = 5867). The data was geocoded, and the annual
number of cases occurred in the 552 census block groups of Valencia was counted.
Different neighborhood-level covariates were assessed: average income, education
level, immigrant concentration, residential instability, and crime-related police calls. We
used different modeling with an increasing complexity level: a non-spatial Poisson
regression model, a spatial regression model, a model including a spatially unstructured
temporal effect, and finally an autoregressive approach combining autoregressive time
series and spatial modeling. Each model was specified following a Bayesian approach,
and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation techniques were applied using R and
R2WinBUGS package.
Results. The autoregressive model showed the best fit in terms of DIC compared to the
other spatial and non-spatial modeling. In addition, all neighborhood-level variables
were relevant to the model (following the 95% credible interval criterion). The results
also showed a high temporal correlation between a year and the previous one. The
autoregressive model allows to map area-specific risk of IPV, to analyze differences
over the years, and to identify areas with an increasing or decreasing risk of IPV. All
these risk maps are presented and discussed.
Conclusions. Results showed that IPV risk is both spatially and temporally distributed
across the city of Valencia and suggest the importance of using a Bayesian spatio-
temporal modeling to better capture neighborhood-level changes in IPV risk.
Keywords: Bayesian statistics, autoregressive models, Markov Chain Monte Carlo,
intimate partner violence, spatio-temporal distribution9th European Congress of Methodology (EAM2020-2021)
Valencia, July 21-23, 2021
Pre-Congress Workshops (July 19-20, 2021)
TITLE: Advances in the effectiveness of intervention programs for intimate
partner violence offenders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs.
Authors: Faraj A. Santirso, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Marisol Lila, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Enrique Gracia, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Purpose. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are essential to support the
development of clinical practice guidelines and inform clinical decision-making. In the
framework of intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention, offender intervention
programs are one of the most widespread prevention strategies. In this paper, we
conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis to analyze whether the inclusion of
motivational strategies improves the effectiveness of IPV offender programs based only
on Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs).
Method/Design. This systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken in
accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-
Analyses (PRISMA) and was registered with the International Prospective Register of
Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO 018: CRD42018110107). The methodological
quality of the trials was assessed according to the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool: 1)
random sequence generation; 2) allocation concealment; 3) blinding of participants and
personnel; 4) blinding of outcome assessment; 5) incomplete outcome data and 6)
selective reporting bias. The main summary measures were the standardized mean
difference (SMD) and odds ratios (OR). The degree of heterogeneity (I2) was calculated
to determine whether RCTs included in the meta-analysis were consistent. Data entry
and statistical analysis were carried out using Review Manager Software, version 5.3.
Results. Participants in the motivational IPV offender intervention programs showed a
non-statistically significant reduction in physical and psychological IPV and official
recidivism. Also, they received a significantly higher dose of intervention and showed
significantly less dropout.
Conclusions. This study showed the importance of conducting systematic reviews and
meta-analysis studies to support the development of clinical practice guidelines of IPV
offender programs based on scientific evidence. These methods are suitable for
determining whether scientific evidence it can be generalized across treatment
variations, subsamples or settings.
Keywords: Meta-analysis, Experimental designs, Publication bias, Intimate partner
violence offender programs.9th European Congress of Methodology (EAM2020-2021)
Valencia, July 21-23, 2021
Pre-Congress Workshops (July 19-20, 2021)
TITLE: Predicting the willingness to intervene in cases of intimate partner
violence: A mediation analysis
Authors: Manuel Martín-Fernández, Department of Social and Methodological
Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid
Miriam Marco, Department of Social Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid
Arabella Castro, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Enrique Gracia, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Marisol Lila, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia
Purpose. Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a serious public health
problem of global proportions. The willingness to intervene in cases of intimate partner
violence reflects the level of tolerance of this type of violence. Previous research has
showed a strong relationship between the willingness to intervene and several
sociodemographic variables (e.g., gender, age, study level, and nationality). However,
these relationships may be mediated by the attitudes towards IPVAW (e.g., attitudes of
acceptability, victim-blaming attitudes, ambivalent sexism). The aim of this study is to
assess the effect of public attitudes towards IPVAW in the willingness to intervene in
cases of this type of violence.
Method/Design. Participants were recruited using a two-staged stratified sampling.
The sample consist of 1460 participants (60.8% women), aged 16 to 89. Participants
completed the attitudes of acceptability scale, the victim-blaming attitudes scale, the
ambivalent sexism inventory, and the willingness to intervene scale.
Results. A second order factorial model was first estimated including the attitudes of
acceptability, victim blaming, and hostile sexism. The estimation method was MLR.
The model showed a good fit, and was used as the latent structure of the attitudes
towards IPVAW (CFI=0.91, TLI=0.90, RMSEA=0.044). A complete mediation SEM
model was estimated, in which the relation between the sociodemographic variables
(i.e., gender, age, educational level, and nationality) and the scores of the willingness to
intervene scale was mediated by the second-order attitudinal factor. The fit of the
resulting model was good (CFI=0.92, TLI=0.91, RMSEA=0.034). Results indicated that
participants’ levels in the attitudinal factor completely mediated the effect of the
sociodemographic variables on the willingness to intervene (absex=-0.27, pYou can also read
