Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Measuring The Lifetime Experience Of Domestic Violence: Application Of The Life History Calendar Method, Mieko Yoshihama, Kimberly Clum, Alexandra Crampton, Brenda Gillespie

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

In the absence of a "gold standard," research on domestic violence relies primarily on self-report, the quality of which is known to decline as the length of the recall period increases. Eliciting valid and reliable self-report data is crucial to the development of prevention and intervention policies and services. Nevertheless, existing measures typically do not incorporate devices to facilitate respondents' recall of the lifetime experience of domestic violence. This article describes the application of the Life History Calendar (LHC) method (Freedman, Thornton, Camburn, Alwin, & Young-DeMarco, 1988) to increase a respondent's recall of domestic violence victimization over the lifecourse. The …