Conflict Tactics Scale for Partner and Spouse / Physical Abuse Scale

Conflict Tactics Scale for Partner and Spouse / Physical Abuse Scale

The partner-spouse version of the Conflict Tactics Scale was included to obtain information about different manners in which partners have handled arguments in the past year.

WAVE 1: The Conflict Tactics Scale for Partner and Spouse (PDF 2.4MB) measured both the extent to which partners in a dating, cohabiting, or marital relationship engage in psychological and physical attacks on each other. It also measured their use of reasoning or negotiation to deal with conflicts. It was administered to either the primary caregiver of subjects belonging to Cohorts 0 to 15, or to the subjects in Cohort 18.

WAVE 2: The Physical Abuse Scale (PDF 3.4MB) measured the extent to which partners in a dating, cohabiting, or marital relationship engage in physical attacks on each other. This Wave 2 study replaced the Wave 1 partner-spouse version of the Conflict Tactics Scale. It was administered to the primary caregiver of subjects belonging to Cohorts 0 to 15.

WAVE 3: The Conflict Tactics Scale for Partner and Spouse measured both the extent to which partners in a dating, cohabiting, or marital relationship engage in psychological and physical attacks on each other. It also measured their use of reasoning or negotiation to deal with conflicts. This Wave 3 study was modified from the Wave 1 partner-spouse version of the Conflict Tactics Scale. It was administered to subjects' primary caregivers in Cohorts 0 to 9 and to subjects in Cohorts 15 and 18.

Straus, M.A. (1979). "Measuring Intrafamily Conflict and Violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) scales." Journal of Marriage and the Family, 41, 75-88.

Moffit, T., Caspi, A., Krueder, R., Magdol, L., Margolin, G., Silva, P, & Sydney, R. (1996). "Do partners agree about abuse? A psychometric evaluation of interpartner agreement." Psychological Assessment, 9, 47-56.

Basic Information regarding Conflict Tactics Scale