Assessing acceptance of violence toward women: a factor analysis of Burt's Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence Scale.

The Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence Scale (AIV) is a self-report inventory assessing beliefs about violence toward women. This study's purpose was to test the multidimensionality of the AIV. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on half a sample of 772 male participants and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the other half. EFA indicated a two-factor solution. Factors were labeled Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence. The CFA showed this model provided a good fit and was superior to the original one-factor model. Potential problems when using the single sum score and the applicability of the derived factor structure to violence research are discussed.