Cross-Cultural Reliability and Validity of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales: A Study of University Student Dating Couples in 17 Nations

Abstract

Although the original Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS) have been successfully used in many countries, no studies have been published on the cross-cultural reliability and validity of the revised instrument (CTS2). This study is intended to provide some of the needed psychometric information. It reports reliability and examples of validity evidence for the five CTS2 (physical assault, physical injury, psychological aggression, sexual coercion, and negotiation) to measure these aspects of the dating relationships of 7,179 students at 33 universities in 17 countries. The results show high alpha coefficients of internal consistency and low confounding with social desirability response set. Examples indicating the construct validity of the CTS2 Physical Assault and Injury Scales are also presented. Although the data refer to dating relationships of university students, the results are sufficiently promising to encourage use of the CTS2 in a variety of cultural settings.