Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 13, No.

3, 1998

Psychological Abuse of Chinese Wives

Catherine So-kum Tang1

The present studies aimed to facilitate understanding of psychological wife abuse in Chinese families by extending the generality of the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) to Chinese. Study 1 examined the factorial validity of the original ISA using Chinese college students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis rejected the 2-factor structure of the original ISA. Based on results of exploratory factor analysis, an alternative 19-item Chinese ISA was devised, which showed satisfactory internal consistency and correlated with the original ISA and the Conflict 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 those women who had no abuse experiences. It also correlated with the CTS, marital dissatisfaction, and negative mental health measures of general psychological symptoms, depression, and anxiety. The clinical cutting scores of the Chinese ISA were also determined to predict psychological and physical wife abuse in Chinese families.
KEY WORDS: psychological wife abuse; Chinese families; family violence.

Anthropological and cross-cultural studies have shown that although wife abuse is common around the world, there are considerable variations in its definition, acceptance, frequency, and severity across different societies (Campbell, 1992; Levinson, 1989). Researchers (Campbell, 1992; Gallin, 1992; Levinson, 1989; Honig and Hershatter, 1988) have argued that societal variations in wife abuse depend largely upon degree of general violence in the society, presence or absence of active community intervention such as shelters for battered wives, degree of acceptance of the defi-

1Psychology

Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin NT Hong Kong.

299
0885-7482/98/0900-0299$15.00/0 C 1998 Plenum Publishing Corporation

300

Tang

nitions of masculinity, and, most important, societal and cultural sanctions of such behavior. Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by the Confucian tradition, which disapproves of aggression in general and emphasizes harmony, discipline, and self-restraint in interpersonal relationships (Goodwin and Tang, 1996). However, the patriarchal beliefs and values of the Confucian tradition often place Chinese women in submissive and vulnerable positions (Anderson, 1992; Gallin, 1992). Exploitation of and violence against women within the family contexts have been documented in Chinese societies for many centuries (Chin, 1994; Honig and Hershatter, 1988; Gilmartin, 1990; Okamura et al., 1995). Violence toward one's wife, either through physical or nonphysical means, is often condoned as a legitimate treatment of Chinese women and defended within the "rules of the family" (jia fa) and "three obediences" of women to defer to their fathers, husbands, and sons. In Chinese families, husbands are considered as "heaven" and wives as "earth." Thus, a wife is not supposed to leave her husband no matter how abusive he is because the earth cannot exist without the heaven (Chao, 1973). She is also discouraged from bringing up their grievances so that honor, solidarity, and harmony of her family may be maintained. Despite the general secrecy about violence in the family, recent research has shown that wife abuse is quite common in Chinese families in both rural and urban China (Honig and Hershatter, 1988), Hong Kong (Tang, 1994), Singapore (Choi and Edleson, 1995), Taiwan (Chen, 1991), and the American Chinese community (Chin, 1994). For example, about 75% of the surveyed students in Hong Kong reported use of verbal and nonverbal acts by their parents to threaten or symbolically hurt each other during family conflicts in the survey year, and about 14% also indicated that their parents engaged in the actual use of physical force against each other (lang, 1994). Similar to Western literature, studies on wife abuse in Chinese families have mainly focused on physical abuse. Very little is known about the extent and impact of nonphysical forms of wife abuse. This is in part due to lack of adequate operational definitions and assessment tools for this aspect of wife abuse, which has variously been described as emotional abuse, nonphysical abuse, psychological abuse, and verbal abuse. In this paper, all nonphysical forms of wife abuse will be termed psychological wife abuse. Previous Western studies have proposed several conceptual frameworks to describe this form of wife abuse. Sonkin et al. (1985) include explicit and implicit threats of violence, extreme controlling behavior, pathological jealousy, mental degradation, and isolating behavior; whereas Russell (1982) and NiCarthy (1986) identify isolation, monopolization of perception, induced debility, threats, occasional indulgences, demonstrating "omnipotence," degradation, and enforcement of trivial demands as behavioral components of

Chinese ISA

301

psychological wife abuse. Instead of viewing it as consisting of distinct behavior patterns, Tolman (1992) argues that it is more useful to describe psychological abuse on a continuum, with isolated hurtful behaviors such as withdrawing momentarily, listening unemphathically, speaking sharply in anger on one end; and pervasive, one-sided, severe psychological torture similar to intentional brainwashing and mistreatment of prisoners of war on the other end. There are several instruments developed in the West for the assessment of psychological wife abuse. The widely used Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979) includes a subscale called the verbal aggression, which refers to the use of verbal and/or nonverbal behaviors that symbolically hurt the partner. It has been criticized for including a limited scope of psychological abuse, i.e., only on withdrawal and verbal aggression. Hudson and Mclntosh (1981) have devised The Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) to measure both physical and psychological wife abuse. The ISA covers a broader range of psychologically abusive behaviors than the CTS, but includes limited physically aggressive acts (Straus, 1987). The scale demonstrates sound psychometric properties with good internal consistency and construct validity. It can accurately discriminate between abuse victims and women with no abuse experiences. There are two recently developed scales in this area, the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI: Tolman, 1989) and the Measure of Wife Abuse (MWA: Rodenburg and Fantuzzo, 1993). Since these two scales are rather new, validity studies on them are limited. Both scales have items similar to those of the CTS and the ISA. The present studies aimed to facilitate the understanding of psychological wife abuse in Chinese families by devising a Chinese version of the Index for Spouse Abuse. This scale was chosen because it contains an adequate pool of items that describe psychologically abusive behaviors. Study 1 aimed to examine the factorial validity of the ISA, i.e., whether the original ISA factor structure could be extended to Chinese samples. If the original structure was inappropriate, a viable and alternative factor solution for Chinese would be proposed. Study 2 attempted to determine whether the Chinese ISA would be a valid measurement scale for identifying and detecting occurrence of psychological wife abuse in Chinese families. It was hypothesized that the Chinese ISA would differentiate between victims of psychological wife abuse from those women who did not have such experiences. The construct and concurrent validity of the Chinese ISA was also assessed by correlating it with the Conflicts Tactic scales and measures of marital satisfaction and psychological functioning. It was predicted that the Chinese ISA would correlate with family violence variables, marital dissatisfaction, and negative mental health measures.

302

Tang

STUDY 1 This study aimed to devise a measurement scale for the assessment of psychological and physical wife abuse for Chinese based on the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA). It would examine whether the underlying factor structure of the original ISA was the same for Chinese samples.

METHOD Participants Study 1 consisted of 370 (236 female and 134 male) Chinese undergraduate students at a local university in Hong Kong. These students participated voluntarily in a study examining family relationship. Their ages ranged from 17 to 30 years old (Mean = 18.89, SD = .07), with 90% under the age of 20. Male and female students did not differ on age, parents' level of education, and family income (p > .05). In general, about half of the students' fathers completed high school, with an average annual income of U.S.$12,000; while half of the students' mothers completed junior high school, earning an average of about U.S.$6,000 per year. These students received credit points in their psychology classes for participating in the study. Instruments Father-to-Mother abuse was assessed with the Chinese translation of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS: Straus, 1979). The verbal and physical abuse subscales were used for the present study, with the latter further divided into the minor and severe violence indexes. The CTS demonstrates stable factor structure with satisfactory internal consistency reliabilities and correlates with a variety of hypothesized predictors of marital aggression and child abuse (Barling et al., 1987). The Chinese translation of the CTS also showed satisfactory reliabilities ( ranged from .76 to .86; lang, 1994). For the present study, students were asked to report on their parents' behaviors toward each other during family conflicts for the past one year on a 7-point scale, with 0 = never, 1 = once, 2 = twice, 3 = 3-5 times, 4 = 6-10 times, 5 = 11-20 items, and 6 = 20 times. As suggested by Straus and Gelles (1988), the weighted frequency scale was used to calculate the subscale and index scores, 0 = never, 1 = once, 2= twice, 4 = 3-5 times, 8 = 6 to 10 times, 15 = 1 to 20 times, and 25 = more than 20 times.

Chinese ISA

303

Father-to-Mother psychological and physical abuse was assessed by the 30-item Chinese version of the Index of Spouse Abuse (Hudson and Mclntosh, 1981). It is a highly reliable (a > .90) and valid measure of the degree or magnitude of the abuse that women receive from their male partners. Factor analytic results suggest that the scale includes two factors, namely nonphysical (psychological) and physical abuse. The two factors can successfully differentiate abused women from nonabused women and correlate in expected directions with measures of depression and fear. For this study, students indicated how frequently their fathers engaged in the described behaviors toward their mothers for the past year, using a 5-point scale with 1 as "Never" and 5 as "Very Frequently". Demographics Students were asked about their own age, parents' age, educational level, and family income. Procedures The Index of Spouse Abuse scale was first translated into Chinese by the present investigator, with the meanings of the items as close to the original as possible. Two clinical psychologists and two social workers examined the translated version to ensure transliteral equivalence. Modifications were made to the translation based on the feedback of these bilingual professionals. The final version was then administered to 370 Chinese college students, who participated voluntarily in a study that examined family relation. These students reported on the Chinese versions of the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS) and the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) the various forms of interparental responses during family conflicts. The two scales took about 30 min to complete. Students were assured of the confidentiality of the information they provided.
RESULTS Factorial Validity of the ISA

In order to determine whether the original ISA factor structure could be generalized to Chinese samples, confirmatory factor analysis procedure was performed using the unweighted ISA item scores. It was specified, a priori, that the underlying dimensions of the ISA could be explained by

304

Tang

two independent factors as delineated by Hudson and Mclntosh (1981). The present analysis was conducted with the covariance matrix, using the LISTREL 8 computer program. Results showed unsatisfactory goodnessof-fit indexes (x2 = 1839.39, GFI = .71, AGFI = .66), suggesting that the original ISA factor structure did not fit the present data. Subsequent exploratory factor analyses were performed with the same data to devise a viable and alternative factor solution for Chinese. Similar to Hudson and Mclntosh (1981), principal component analyses with varimax rotations were done. A scree test of the eigenvalues indicated that there were four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. The 2-, 3-, and 4-factor solutions were generated and carefully inspected to determine the interpretability of the dimensions. The 3- and 4-factor solutions each consisted of arrays of heterogeneous and cross-loading items, and the 2-factor solution was subjectively selected as the most interpretable. With the 2-factor solution, factor loadings of items were then examined for their significance. Consistent with the original ISA, a factor loading of .50 or greater was considered as a significant loading. Items that had factor loadings of less than .50 on both factors or significant loadings on more than one factor were deleted. The original 30-item ISA was thus reduced to 19 items (Table I). The first factor of the Chinese ISA consisted of 12 items and corresponded to the nonphysical dimension of the original ISA (except Items 22 and 28). The second factor consisted of 7 items similar to the physical dimension of the original scale (except Item 21). The first and second factor each accounted for 34% and 9.7% of the total variance. Following Byrne's (1989) suggestion, post-hoc confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 19-item Chinese ISA to determine its factor validity. This model also hypothesized that the Chinese ISA would be explained by two independent factors, and the covariance matrix was based on the unweighted items of the college students. Results showed acceptable goodness-of-fit indexes (x2 = 626.62, GFI = .85, AGFI = .81), suggesting that the revised 19-item Chinese ISA could be described by a 2-factor model. The Chinese ISA Based on factor analytic results, a 19-item Chinese ISA was devised. The 19-item Chinese ISA in Chinese characters is available upon request to the investigator. It also consisted of two dimensions with good internal consistency estimates, a = .91, .79 for nonphysical and physical abuse respectively. There were no gender differences regarding students' reports of

Chinese ISA

305

Table I. Factor Loading of the Chinese ISAa Items Nonphysical dimension 1. Demanding obedience to his whims (2) 2. Having no respect for my feelings (26) 3. Screaming and yelling at me (22) 4. Becoming very angry if disagree with his point of view (12) 5. Becoming very upset if dinner, housework of laundry not being done when he thinks it should be (5) 6. Belittling me (1) 7. Ordering me around (25) 8. Not being a kind person (19) 9. Frightening me (28) 10. Acting like being his personal servant (10) 11. Treating me like a dunce (29) 12. Being stingy in giving me enough money to run home (14) Physical dimension 13. Beating me so badly that I must seek medical help (17) 14. Acting like he would like to kill me (30) 15. Threatening me with a weapon (13) 16. Becoming abusive when he drinks (24) 17. Making me performing sex acts that I do not enjoy or like (4) 18. Demanding sex whether I want it or not (21) 19. Punching me with his fists (7) Variance accounted for
a

Factor I
.79 .79 .77 .74 .71 .70 .70 .60 .60 .60 .58 .56 .10 .09 .02 -.01 .15 .24 .41 34%

Factor II
.40 .15 .12 -.04 .10 .15 .23 .28 .35 .42 .31 .28 .85 .80 .74 .64 .63 .55 .52 9.7%

Only items with factor loadings greater than .50 on one item were included in the Chinese ISA. Number within parentheses represented item number of the original ISA.

their fathers' abusive behaviors toward their mothers (t = .62 for nonphysical abuse and .19 for physical abuse, p > .05). In order to determine the relation between the Chinese and original ISA, Pearson correlations were performed using the weighted scores with the item weights specified by Hudson and Mclntosh (1981). Results showed that the two dimensions correlated with each other (r = .45, p < .005) and their corresponding dimensions of the original scale (r = .93, .88 for nonphysical and physical abuse, respectively, p < .001; Table II). Correlations were also performed between the Chinese ISA and the CTS to determine the former's construct validity. Results indicated that factors of the two scales correlated with each other, r ranged from .22 to .62 (p < .005). The nonphysical dimension of the Chinese ISA had the strongest correlation with the verbal abuse index of the CTS (r = .54), while the physical dimension of the Chinese ISA showed the strongest relation with the severe violence index of the CTS (r = .62).

306
Table II. Correlations of The Chinese ISA with The Original ISA and The CTS (N = 370)a Chinese ISA Nonphysical Original Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) Nonphysical Physical Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) Verbal abuse Minor violence Severe violence
a

Tang

Physical

.93 .75 .54 .32 .22

.58 .88 .41 .42 .62

All p < .001.

STUDY 2 The second study aimed to determine the concurrent validity of the Chinese ISA. Analyses for this study was based on the weighted item scores of the Chinese ISA and the CTS for abused and nonabused Chinese women.

METHOD Participants Study 2 included 31 Chinese women recruited from a shelter for abused wives in Hong Kong (the abused group) and 41 Chinese women from a local community/recreational center for women and their children (the nonabused group). These women's ages ranged from 26 to 47 years old, with 90% of them under the age of 40. They had an average of two children, and about half of them had completed junior high school education. All were legally married at the time of assessment, although the abused group were physically separated from their husbands and 10 of them were petitioning for divorce. The abused and nonabused group did not differ on their ages (Mean = 40.93, 40.58 respectively; t = -.05, p > .05), number of children in the family (Mean = 2.10, 2.08 respectively; t = .09, p > .05), and education level (x2 = -.39, p > .05).

Chinese ISA

307

Instrument

Psychological Measures:
General psychological distress was assessed by the Chinese translation of the General Health Questionnaire by Goldberg (1972). The Chinese version shows satisfactory reliability and concurrent validity for Chinese samples (Shek, 1989). Women were asked to rate each item on a 4-point scale, ranging from "Much more than usual" to "Much less than usual." Higher scores indicate the more frequent occurrence of the described symptoms. Anxiety and depression were, respectively, measured by the Chinese versions of the State Anxiety Inventory Form Y (Spielberger et al., 1970) and the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961). These two scales exhibit satisfactory internal consistency and reliability estimates. High scores indicate high levels of anxiety and depression.

Family Relation Measures

Marital satisfaction was measured by the 15-item Chinese version of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (Locke and Wallace, 1968). It demonstrates satisfactory reliability and stability over a three month period. The cutoff scores for distressed and nondistressed couple are either 100 or 90. High scores represent a higher degree of marital satisfaction. Wife abuse was assessed by the Chinese translation of the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979). Participants were asked to report on their spouses' behaviors toward them during family conflicts for the past one year on a 7-point scale. The weighted frequency scale was used to calculate the verbal and physical subscales as well as the minor and severe violence indexes (Straus and Gelles, 1988). Psychological and physical wife abuse was also assessed by the Chinese ISA devised from Study 1. Women were asked to indicate how frequently their spouses engaged in the described behaviors in the past 1 year.

Demographics
Participants provided information on the age and level of education of themselves and their husbands, family income, and number of children in the family.

308

Tang Procedure

The local shelter for battered women and a community/recreational center for women in Hong Kong were approached to refer their clients to participant in a study that examined family relation. Thirty one women from the shelter and 41 women from the community center were recruited and filled out packages of questionnaires which included measures of general psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and marital satisfaction. They also completed the Chinese versions of the CTS and the ISA. Women were each given U.S.$12.50 for their participation and were also assured of confidentiality of their responses to the questionnaires.

RESULTS Concurrent Validity of the Chinese ISA

To determine whether the Chinese ISA is a valid measurement scale for identifying and detecting the occurrence of psychological and physical wife abuse for Chinese, its concurrent validity was thus examined. It was hypothesized that the Chinese ISA should be able to differentiate between wife abuse victims from those women who did not have such experiences. Series of Mests were conducted between the abused and nonabused women on their marital satisfaction, abuse indexes of the CTS, and the two dimensions of the Chinese ISA. Significant differences were found between the two groups on the above variables, t value ranged from -.87 to 9.36 (p < .005, Table III). In particular, the two groups showed the largest t value in their weighted scores on the nonphysical dimension of the Chinese ISA, t = 9.36 (p < .001). In other words, the best separation of the groups was achieved by the nonphysical abuse scores of the Chinese ISA. Point-biserial correlations between each of the variables and group membership in the abused and nonabused group were also performed to provide additional evidences regarding the discriminant ability of the Chinese ISA. Results are also represented in Table III. Consistent with f-test findings, the nonphysical dimension of the Chinese ISA showed the strongest correlation with the group membership of the women among all other variables, r = -.75 (p < .001). The second best estimate for group membership was marital satisfaction (r = .70), followed by the physical dimension of the Chinese ISA and the verbal abuse index of the CTS (r = .69, -.68, respectively; p < .001).

Chinese ISA Table III. Concurrent Validity of The Chinese ISA (N = 72)a Abused (n = 31) Dependent Variables Mean 40.93 48.22 57.48 14.13 20.32 61.91 40.74 Nonabused (n = 41) Mean 40.58 100.88 6.28

309

SD
7.04 24.98 39.90 21.75 27.31 27.06 28.00

SD
4.84 26.42 14.34 1.58 1.96 14.85 7.71

t value

r
-.05 .70* -.68* -.64* -.60* -.75* -.69*

Age
Marital satisfaction CTS verbal abuse CTS minor violence CTS severe violence CISA nonphysical CISA physical
a

.24
-8.27* 6.81* 3.50* 4.01* 9.36* 7.12*

.43 .61
9.98 3.89

CTS = Conflict Tactics Scale; CISA = Chinese Index of Spouse Abuse; r value represented results of point-biserial correlations between each dependent variable and group membership in the abused and nonabused group; *p = < .005.

Construct Validity The construct validity of the Chinese ISA was assessed by examining its correlation with variables that previous studies have found to be related to wife abuse. For psychological functioning variables, nonphysical and physical dimensions of the Chinese ISA correlated with high levels of general psychological distress, depression, and anxiety, r ranged from .37 to .61 (p < .005; Table IV). In addition, scores on the Chinese ISA were also related to the abuse indexes of the CTS and marital satisfaction, r ranged from -.88 to .81 (p < .005). In particular, the two dimensions of the Chinese ISA showed the strongest correlations with marital satisfaction (r = -.88 and -.77 for nonphysical and physical dimensions), followed by the

Tible IV Construct Validity of The Chinese ISA (N = 72) Chinese ISA Criterion Measures Psychological functioning General psychological distress Depression Anxiety Martial functioning Martial satisfaction Family violence Verbal abuse Minor violence Severe violence Nonphysical Physical

.53* .61* .58*

-.88*

.37* .57* .51*

-.77*

.81* .57* .57*

.76* .66* .69*

*p < .005.

310

Tang

verbal abuse index of the CTS (r= .81 and .76 for nonphysical and physical dimensions). Clinical Cutting Scores Cumulative frequency distributions for the two dimensions of the Chinese ISA for the abused and nonabused groups were carefully inspected to determine the cutting scores that would predict whether the women were victims of wife abuse. Results showed that a score of 25 on the nonphysical dimension and a score of 7 on the physical dimension were the best clinical cutting scores as they provided the minimum number of false positives and false negatives. By using 25 as the cutting score for the nonphysical dimension, the classification error rates were: 10% for false positives, 10.3% for false negatives, and 10.14% for the whole sample. Similarly, a cutting score of 7 for the physical dimension yielded error rates of 15% for false positives, 19.35% for false negatives, and 16.90% for the total sample.

DISCUSSION Studies on family violence have been increasing in the past decades; however, those focusing on psychological wife abuse are much less comparing to those concerning physical wife abuse (e.g., Gelles and Loseke, 1993; Straus and Gelles, 1992). This is probably due to the fact that research on psychological wife abuse has been plagued with a lack of common definitions and sensitive assessment scales (Ammerman and Hersen, 1992; Tblman, 1992). Societal and cultural differences in the perception of what constitutes psychological abuse also make it a difficult topic to study. The present studies aimed to empirically determine whether it was feasible to extend a Western assessment scale on psychological wife abuse to Chinese samples. Researchers have argued that it is important to study psychological wife abuse across cultures to provide a broader perspective, to address gaps in existing literature, and to develop international strategies to combat the problem (Koss, 1990; Walker, 1989). The present studies provided encouraging preliminary findings and supported that with modification, the ISA could be used in Chinese societies. Confirmatory factor analytic results suggested that the original 30-item ISA contained items perceived differently by Chinese. Modifications were then made to the scale based on exploratory factor analyses, and a 19-item Chinese ISA was thus devised. Similar to the original ISA, the Chinese ISA demonstrated two underlying factor components, i.e., the physical and nonphysical dimensions. However, a

Chinese ISA

311

closer examination of the Chinese ISA revealed that three items (Items 21, 22, and 28) had their significant loadings different from the original scale. Item 21, "My partner demands sex whether I want it or not," was included in the nonphysical dimension of the original scale; whereas Item 22, "My partner screams and yells at me," and Item 28, "My partner frightens me," were considered as physical forms of wife abuse according to the original ISA. It was noted that Hudson and Mclntosh (1981) were uncertain as whether these three items would load on physical or psychological abuse when they first conceptualized the initial pool of items for the ISA. Straus (1979) included screaming, yelling, and threatening behaviors in the verbal abuse subscale of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Therefore, the loadings of these items on the Chinese ISA were not idiosyncratic. It was also noted that, compared to the original ISA, the Chinese ISA has lost eight items in the nonphysical dimension. The lost items could be grouped into two aspects of psychological abuse, namely, isolating behaviors (Items 6, 16, 18, and 20 of the original ISA) and mental degradation (Items 8, 9, 11, and 13 of the original ISA). An example of isolating behaviors is Item 20, "My partner does not want me to socialize with my female friend," and Item 9, "My partner tells me that I am ugly and unattractive," typically describes mentally degrading behavior. These findings suggested that Western conceptual frameworks regarding the underlying domains of psychological abuse (e.g., NiCarthy, 1986; Sonkin et al., 1985) should be examined for their cross-cultural validity before applying to non-Western samples. The second study provided further support that the 19-item Chinese ISA demonstrated satisfactory concurrent and construct validity. It was able to differentiate victims of wife abuse from nonabused women and correlated with a widely used scale for family violence. It also correlated with marital and psychological criterion variables such as marital dissatisfaction and negative mental health functioning. Thus, the reduction of the scale items did not seem to affect its psychometric properties. The Chinese ISA seems to be a viable alternative assessment instrument for wife abuse besides the Conflict Tactics Scale. In particular, the Chinese ISA has more items on a broader range of psychological abuse than the CTS and also contains a subscale for physical abuse. The clinical cutting scores suggested by the present studies also help to screen for victims of wife abuse. Thus, the Chinese ISA is a useful instrument for both clinicians and researchers who are interested in studying wife abuse in Chinese families. Limitations of the present studies were similar to those reported by Hudson and Mclntosh (1981), Straus (1987), and Tolman (1992). First, the Chinese ISA only consists of behavior patterns without information on the antecedents and consequences of specific behavior. -Second, the scale is subject to social desirability biases and respondents may tend to over-report

312

Tang

partners' but under-report own abusive behaviors. Third, a more representative sample of abused women, in addition to those staying at shelter places, should be obtained to determine the clinical cutting scores to minimize the error rates. Specific limitation of the present studies that warrants further attention is related to the weighted scores of the scale items. At present, the weights assigned to the items were the same as the original ISA which were derived from American samples. Future studies on the Chinese ISA should attempt to determine the item weights using Chinese samples to adjust for cultural variations in the perception of the severity of the abusive behaviors. The present investigator is aware of the more recent development in the assessment of psychological wife abuse after embarking the present studies. For example, Tolman (1989) has since developed a new scale, the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI), and reported satisfactory reliability and validity results. Perhaps, future studies on Chinese samples should incorporate both the PMWI and the ISA. Meanwhile, the Chinese ISA appears to be a viable and valid measure for assessing psychological wife abuse in Chinese families.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This study was supported by an earmarked grant awarded by the University Grant Council of Hong Kong.

REFERENCES
Ammerman, R. T., & Hersen, M. (1992). Assessment of Family Violence: A Clinical and Legal Sourcebook. John Wiley, New York. Anderson, E. N. (1992). Chinese fisher families: Variations on Chinese themes. J. Comp. Fam. Studies 23(2): 231-247. Barling, J., O'Leary, K. D., Jouriles, E. N., Vivian, D., and MacEwen, K. E. (1987). Factor similarity of the Conflict Tactics Scale across samples, spouses, and sites: Issues and Implications. J. Fam. Viol. 2: 37-53. Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., and Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 4: 561-571. Byrne, B. M. (1989). A Primer of LISREL: Basic Applications and Programming for Confirmatory Analytic Models. Springer-Verlag, New York. Campbell, J. C. (1992). Wife-battering: Cultural contexts versus western social sciences. In Counts, D. A., Brown, J. K., and Campbell, J. C. (eds.), Sanctions and Sanctuary: Cultural Perspectives on the Beating of Wives. Westview Press, Colorado. Chao, F. C. (1973). Women and Law in Chinese Society, Shi Hor Publising Co., Taipei. Chen, R. (1991). Relationship between marital violence characteristics and family dynamics in Taiwan: A study of 25 cases. In Cheung, F. M., Wan, P. W., Choi, H. K., and Choy, L.

Chinese ISA

313

M. (eds.), Selected Papers on Conference on Gender Studies in Chinese Societies, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Hong Kong. Chin, K. L, (1994). Out-of-town brides: Internationa! marriages and wife abuse among Chinese immigrants. J. Comp. Fam, Studies 25(1): 53-69. Choi, A., and Edleson, J. L. (1995). Social disapproval of wife assaults: A national survey of Singapore. J. Comp. Fam. Studies, 26: 214-221. Gallin, R. (1922). Wife abuse in the context of development and change: A Chinese (Taiwanese) case. In Counts, D. A., Brown, J. K., and Campbell, J. C. (eds.), Sanctions and Sanctuary: Cultural Perspectives on the Beating of Wives, Westview Press, Colorado. Gelles, R. J., and Loseke, D. R. (1993). Current Controversies on Family Violence, Sage, New York. Gilmartin, C. (1990). Violence against women in contemporary China. In Lipman, J., and Harrell, S. (eds.), Violence in China: Essays in Culture and Subculture, State University of New York Press, New York. Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Goodwin, R., and Tang, C. (1996). Chinese personal relationships. In Bond, M. H. (ed.), The Handbook of Chinese Psychology, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, pp. 294-308. Honig, E., and Hershatter, G. (1988). Violence against women. In Honig, E., and Hershatter, G. (eds.), Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980's, Stanford University Press, CA. Hudson, W .W., and Mclntosh, S. R. (1981). The assessment of spouse abuse: Two quantifiable dimensions. J. Man. Fam. 11: 873-885. Koss, M. P. (1990). The women's mental health research agenda: Violence against women. Am. Psychologist 45(3): 374-380. Levinson, D. (1989). Family Violence in a Cross-cultural Perspective, Sage, CA. Locke, H. J., and Wallace, K. M. (1968). Predicting Adjustment in Marriage, Greenwood Press, New York. NiCarthy, G. (1986). Getting Free: A Handbook for Women in Abusive Relationships, Seal Press, WA. Okamura, A., Heras, P., and Wong-Kerberg, L. (1995). Asian, Pacific Island, and Filipinos Americans and sexual child abuse. In Fontes, L. (ed.), Sexual Abuse in Nine North American Cultures: Treatment and Prevention, Sage, CA. Rodenburg, F. A., and Fantuzzo, J. W. (1993). The measure of wife abuse: Steps toward the development of a comprehensive assessment technique. J. Fam. Viol. 8(3): 203-228. Russell, D. E. (1982). Rape in Marriage, Collier Books, New York. Shek, D. (1989). Validity of the Chinese version of the General Health questionnaire. J. din. Psychol. 45: 890-897. Sonkin, D. J., Martin, D., and Walker, L. (1985). The Male Batterer: A Treatment Approach, Springer Publishing Co., New York. Spielberger, C., Gorsuch, R. J., and Lushene, R. E. (1970). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Consulting Psychologists Press, CA. Straus, M. A. (1979). Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales. J. Man. Fam. 41: 75-88. Straus, M. A. (1987). A revaluation of the Conflict Tactics Scale violence measure and some new measures, Paper presented at the National Family Violence Research Conference, Durham, NH. Straus, M. A., and Gelles, R. J. (1988). How violent are American families? Estimates from the National Family Violence Resurvey and other studies. In Hotaling, G. T. (ed.), New Directions in Family Violence Research, Sage, CA. Straus, M. A., and Gelles, R. J. (1992). Physical Violence in American Families: Risks Factors and Adaptations in 8,145 Families, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick. Tang, C. (1994). Prevalence of spouse abuse in Hong Kong. J. Fam. Viol. 9(4): 347-356. Tolman, R. M. (1989). The development of a measure of psychological maltreatment of women by their male partners. Viol. Vict. 4(3): 1989.

314

Tang

Tolman, R. M. (1992). Psychological abuse of women. In Amraerman, R. T., and Hersen, M.

(eds.), Assessment of Family Violence: A Clinical and Legal Sourcebook, John Wiley, New

York. Walker, L. (1989). Psychology and violence against women. Am. Psychologist 44(4): 695-702.