The Conflict Tactics Scales and Its Critics: An Evaluation and New Data on Validity and Reliability

Abstract

The first study reporting data on intrafamily physical violence obtained by means of the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS) was published in 1973. One approach taken to investigate the concurrent validity of the CTS has been to examine the level of agreement between CTS scores as reported by more than one family member. The importance of viewing couple agreement as an indication of the validity of the CTS as a measure of spouse abuse is stressed by Edelson and Brygger. The chapter reviews the evidence on factor structure, reliability, and validity. While the research indicates that social desirability presents little threat to the validity of the CTS, most of the agreement studies reviewed found large discrepancies between the reports of violence given by husbands and by wives. Concurrent validity is estimated by the degree to which the new instrument is related to other presumably valid instruments.

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