[Female victimization in the context of dating violence in adolescence: development of an instrument (VIFFA)].

The aim is to report on the development and preliminary validation of an instrument, VIFFA (Violence faite aux Filles dans les Fréquentations à l'Adolescence), on female victimization in the context of dating violence in adolescence. Objectives are twofold: to document the psychometric qualities of this self-report and to propose an instrument adapted to the context of young teens. The instrument refers to concepts of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Questioning in two phases is used to achieve proper understanding of the concept studied and to help select the partner to whom they refer in the second detailed phase. Girls were questioned on violence sustained and boys on violence inflicted. The total sample included 331 boys and 377 girls; their mean age was 14.6 years. A social desirability questionnaire was used to evaluate discriminant validity and the results indicate that the adolescents' answers were not distorted by social desirability. The factorial analyses resulted in 4 slightly different factors for girls and boys. With regard to the girls (violence sustained), the factors included Verbal and Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Control through Jealousy and Sexual Abuse. With the boys (violence inflicted), the factors were Psychological Abuse, Jealousy and Sexual Abuse, Severe Physical Abuse and Minor Physical Abuse. Validation studies indicate that the instrument has adequate psychometric qualities and is adapted to the context of adolescence. An innovative aspect is the place given to items concerning jealousy.