The Intimate Partner Sexual Violence Scale (IPSVS)
The Intimate Partner Sexual Violence Scale (IPSVS) is a research tool that measures sexual violence in the context of an intimate relationship. Sexual violence can be defined as any non-consensual sexual behaviour, including acts of verbal or psychological coercion where no physical contact is involved. In relationships, intimate partner sexual violence frequently co-occurs with other types of violence and abuse, particularly psychological abuse and reproductive coercion.
The IPSVS was created to address the challenges and gaps of previous sexual violence measures, building upon scale development work to date, and in consultation with lived experience and academic experts. It was validated among a sample of 765 adult women in Australia. The IPSVS is a contemporary, concise and comprehensive 20-item measure of intimate partner sexual violence that exhibits evidence of validity and reliability. A full description of the development and validation of the IPSVS Scale can be found in the publication:
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Administration & Scoring
Each IPSVS item contains a possible frequency range of 0 to 5. Within each subscale, the possible range is:
- Dominance and Humiliation (0–55)
- Emotional Coercion (0–25)
- Aggressive Indifference (0–20)
Subscales are not independent; individuals can score across any or all. Individuals are categorized as experiencing intimate partner sexual violence if they score:
- ≥1 on the Dominance and Humiliation items
- ≥1 on the Emotional Coercion items
- ≥1 on the Aggressive Indifference items
The presence or absence of reaching the cut-off threshold in one or more IPSVS dimensions can be used to indicate the proportion of intimate partner sexual violence survivors in the last 12 months (prevalence).
The scale should be used intact as a 20-item scale; the validity and reliability established for the IPSVS as a whole may not generalize to subscales used in isolation or to the use of items selected from subscales.