The validation of the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory.

To evaluate the validity of the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI), 100 women were interviewed. Both PMWI subscales (dominance/isolation and emotional/verbal) successfully discriminated among three groups: physically abused women (BW) scored significantly higher than both relationship distressed/nonabused (RD) and relationship satisfied/nonabused women (RS). Both subscales of the PMWI were highly correlated with the nonphysical abuse subscale of the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA). A 14-item short version of the PMWI also successfully discriminated between the BW and RD groups. When the battered women were divided into service seeking (SB) and nonservice seeking battered women (CB), a more complex picture emerged. The SB group scored significantly higher than the RD and RS group on all PMWI long and short subscales. However, the CB group differed from the RD group only on the short dominance/isolation subscale.