Is there consensus on child violence exposure measures? A study of six recommended instruments

Background: International research has established that children and adolescents are at high risk for being exposed to violence. A systematic review published in 2023 recommended six child and adolescent self-report violence against children (VAC) measures, based on their psychometric properties, in a systematic COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) review. However, the degree of overlap and heterogeneity was not part of the analysis. Objective: To compare the six measures with respect to item overlap and differences concerning specification of exposure dimensions. Method: A content analysis of the original 174 items resulted in a reduction to 38 unique items. These items were organized visually in a co-occurrence circle using an adapted version of Fried’s R code. Furthermore, a pairwise comparison of event lists was performed using the Jaccard index. Results: There was a modest overlap among the six measures. Only one item was present in all six measures, only two items were present in four measures, and 78% of the items were present in just one or two measures. The overall overlap between the six measures was 25%. Conclusions: The lack of overlap among measures reflects a heterogeneity of definitions and purposes. It also impedes progress in research, as comparisons between various studies are difficult to make in a valid and reliable way. The lack of consensus also delays efficient political initiatives, because solid, consensual knowledge about the prevalence of VAC does not exist.