Validation of the questionnaire on emotional abuse

The purpose of this research was to investigate the metric characteristics of an instrument which could be useful first and foremost for determining the prevalence (as well as in diagnostic procedures) of emotional abuse - Questionnaire on Emotional Abuse. The aim was, also based on this questionnaire, to assess the prevalence of emotional abuse on a sample of children in the area of Zagreb. The, emotional abuse of children in this research is defined with precise behavioural items which include parental behaviour A such as neglect, humiliation, mockery, exploitation, disregard of emotional needs and threats towards children. The Questionnaire on Emotional Abuse was constructed based on the translated questionnaire Children's Perception of Parental Verbal Aggression (Solomon, Serres, 1999) and was applied on 373 examinees (4th grade pupils of elementary school). Discriminative analysis of items was carried out on the results obtained as well as the analysis of the main components. The coefficient of reliability for the obtained scale is alpha = 0,863. By means of factor analysis of the results obtained five factors were identified. The assessment of the prevalence of this phenomenon indicates that according to the criteria used in this research 30,7% of children experienced parental behaviour which can be considered as emotional abuse. The practical implications of these results were analysed as well as the possible application of this instrument in scientific procedures and clinical practice.