Measuring children's exposure to domestic violence: The development and testing of the Child Exposure to Domestic Violence (CEDV) Scale

This article describes the development and testing of the psychometric properties of a self-administered Child Exposure to Domestic Violence (CEDV) Scale. The 42-item CEDV was systematically developed using both pre-existing and newly developed items and subsequently subjected to a review and revision by an international panel of experts to establish face validity. After initial pilot testing, the CEDV was administered to 65 children, ages 10 to 16 years of age, who were receiving services from several domestic violence prevention organizations. The measure was administered concurrently with the Things I've Seen and Heard measure of violence exposure to establish convergent validity and again one week later to establish test-retest reliability. The CEDV appears to be a valid and reliable measure of the level of exposure to domestic violence from a child's perspective. The authors discuss potential uses of this scale and the development of resources to support the use of the measure, including an online version of the scale.