Psychometric Properties of the Violence Exposure Scale in Ecuadorian Adolescents and Its Relationship with Child-Parent Violence

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Abstract

Background: Exposure to violence is an adverse experience associated with the perpe-tration of violent future behaviours such as child-to-parent violence. Objective: To analyse the psychometric properties of the Violence Exposure Scale (VES) in a sample of Ecua-dorian adolescents as well as its measurement invariance by sex and age. The second objective was to examine invariance by sex and age. The third objective was to analyse differences in exposure to violence at home, at school, in the street, and on TV based on gender and age, both during the last year and in childhood. The final objective was to analyse the relationship between exposure to violence in the four settings and both timeframes with child-to-parent violence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a probabilistic sample of 2,150 Ecuadorian adolescents (55% female), aged 12 to 18 years (M = 14.53; SD = 1.55). Participants completed the adapted version of the VES and the Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire (CPV-Q). Confirmatory factor analyses, re-liability testing, convergent and discriminant validity analyses and measurement in-variance assessments. Results: The VES showed excellent model fit in both versions: VES1 (last year) and VES2 (before age 10), with strong goodness-of-fit indices (VES1: CFI = 0.988; RMSEA = 0.055; VES2: CFI = 0.994; RMSEA = 0.044). The scale demonstrated full invar-iance across sex and age. Girls reported higher scores in both direct and vicarious vic-timization at home, while boys reported greater exposure to violence at school and in the street. Conclusions: The adapted version of the VES for Ecuadorian adolescents proved to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing exposure to violence in multiple contexts. Significant differences by sex and age were found, highlighting that girls are at greater risk of experiencing violence at home, while boys are more exposed to violence at school and in the community. A significant association was found between direct EV at home and violence against the mother in the past year, as well as toward the father in situations of vicarious exposure at home, both in the last year and during childhood. A moderate association was found between direct violence at school during childhood and violence against both parents. EV in street and TV contexts showed the weakest relationships with CPV.

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