Measuring Myths about Domestic Violence: Development and Initial Validation of the Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale

ABSTRACT Despite the important contributions of Burt's (1980) Burt, M. R. l980. Cultural myths and support for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38: 217–230. Google Scholar Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, no similar valid and reliable measure of domestic violence myths currently exists. This article describes the development and initial validation of the Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale (DVMAS). In the first study, an initial pool of 80 items was evaluated and an 18-item instrument constructed. A second validation study indicated that the DVMAS had excellent reliability (alpha = .88) and good face and content validity as well as good indications of convergent, construct, and known groups validity. Divergent validity was only partially supported. The studies also indicated that domestic violence myths serve individual psychological functions as well as social functions related to blaming the victim, exonerating the perpetrator, and minimizing the violence.