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. 2021 Feb 22:8:2333393621996679.
doi: 10.1177/2333393621996679. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.

The Healing after Gender-Based Violence Scale (GBV-Heal): An Instrument to Measure Recovery Progress in Women-Identifying Survivors

Laura Sinko  1 , Chris Schaitkin  2 , Denise Saint Arnault  2
Affiliations

The Healing after Gender-Based Violence Scale (GBV-Heal): An Instrument to Measure Recovery Progress in Women-Identifying Survivors

Laura Sinko et al. Glob Qual Nurs Res. .

Abstract

Current literature has primarily equated gender-based violence recovery with an improvement of physical or mental health symptoms, causing a gap in our understanding of the impact of interventions beyond the amelioration of adverse symptomology. The purpose of this research was to create an instrument to holistically measure gender-based violence recovery based on survivor healing goals. Ethnographic interviews were conducted in women-identifying gender-based violence survivors (ages 18-76) to determine healing domains and develop items using survivor language (n = 56). Focus groups with academic and community experts (n = 12) and cognitive interviews with gender-based violence survivors (n = 12) were conducted to ensure content and face validity, as well as to evaluate acceptability. This yielded a 31-item instrument to measure healing progress on a 5-point Likert scale. The Healing after Gender-based Violence Scale has the potential to highlight survivor strength and growth while more accurately measuring their recovery process based on survivor goals and desires.

Keywords: Midwest United States; domestic violence; healing; instrument development; recovery; sexual assault; violence against women.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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