Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Wife abuse is one of the most common phenomena in developing countries which leaves harmful effects on women's mental health  and is considered one of the most important types of domestic violence, and is referred to the violence through which, men exercise their social or physical power on women. Based on research literature, wife abuse is divided into three general categories of abuse including: physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Given the importance of identifying, diagnosis, prevention and performing therapeutic interventions in the field of wife abuse, tools are needed to measure and assess wife abuse. In this regard, one of the Iranian made tools is the coercive spouse abuse questionnaire; although this questionnaire has been used in most Iranian studies, however, the psychometric properties of this questionnaire have not been comprehensively addressed in Iran. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the psychometric properties of the wife abuse questionnaire in a sample of women in non-clinical group.
2. Method
The method of the present study is an analysis of the correlation type. The statistical population of this study included all the married women of the city of Mashhad . By using available s ampling method, 671 subjects were selected among them which included two groups. The first group included 536 women who did not ask for divorce, and the second group included 141 women who were asking for divorce and had referred to the branches of family courts of the city of Mashhad. Sample inclusion criteria were those not asking for divorce; married, having passed at least one year of marital life, permanent marriage, and having at least completed the third-year of secondary school education. Exclusion criteria were: suffering from a mental disorder, and asking for divorce. Also among the inclusion criteria were asking for divorce, having passed more than one year of married life, permanent marriage, having filed petition for divorce and having completed at least the third year of secondary school education. 
For data analysis the multivariate variance analysis test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used, and confirmatory factor analysis was through the diametric weighted least squares method, which were considered using SPSS21 and Lisrel 8.8 software. The error level of type one was 0.01 and the beta value was considered as 0.2. Meanwhile all ethical principles including the principle of autonomy and the principle of confidentiality were observed in the research. The research tools were coercive spouse abuse questionnaire which was conducted on the sample group along with Sherer Self-efficacy Scale questionnaire and Beck’s Depression Inventory, as the concurrent criterion validity, and conflict resolution tactics questionnaire as convergent validity.  
3. Results
In the first stage, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) method was used to investigate the unchangeability of spouse abuse questionnaire. Indicators obtained from factor analysis demonstrate that the index value of the square root of the mean squares of the approximate error was less than 0.08 which indicates the optimal fit and desirability of the model (RMSEA=0.031); also the square root value of the mean squares of the standardized remainder was 0.069, in which the value less than 0.08 is considered as acceptable fit. Also, the indicator value of the goodness of fit of the model was 0.99 and the adaptive fit indicator of the model was 1 which indicates the acceptable fit between the three-factor model and the data. Also, the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that all questions were identified in their own relevant factor and no question was deleted from the questionnaire. 
For examining the concurrent validity, the questionnaire of conflict resolution tactics was used and for assessing the validity of the concurrent criterion, the tools of self-efficacy and depression were used, and the Pearson's correlation coefficients with spouse abuse questionnaire were respectively: 0.60, -0.40, and 0.40, which showed the convergent validity and concurrent criterion of the spouse abuse questionnaire were satisfactory. Also, in examining the validity of the questionnaire’s structure, the correlation coefficients between spouse abuse questionnaire factors were studied and all correlations were significant at the level 0.01. The distinctive validity of spouse abuse questionnaire was performed by using multivariate variance analysis. And by comparing the mean scores of the two groups of married women asking for divorce and married women not asking for divorce, results showed that spouse abuse scores in women asking for divorce were higher than those who were not asking for divorce. In examining the reliability of the questionnaire the results of Cronbach's alpha coefficient in the total scale was 0.95, in the emotional abuse factor was 0.93, in physical abuse factor was 0.88, and in sexual abuse was 0.87, which were satisfactory.
4. Discussion
Based on the results obtained from this study, the coercive spouse abuse questionnaire has proper psychometric characteristics, with the explanation that the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 3 factor model has desirably fit indicators; also all items of the questionnaire had acceptable load factor and were significantly uploaded on the desired factors. Resultantly, no items of any of the three factors: emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse of the questionnaire were deleted. On the other hand, the self-efficacy and depression tools were used to examine the validity of the concurrent criterion in the individual performance dimension arising from spouse abuse. 
Results showed that spouse abuse questionnaire has the capacity to anticipate the self-efficacy and depression of women. Therefore, the validity of this questionnaire criterion was also confirmed. In addition to having criterion validity for this questionnaire, the convergent validity was also confirmed and results showed that the spouse abuse questionnaire has also stronger connection with questionnaire similar to it. 
It should be stated that reliability and validity coefficients suitable for this scale, short duration, ease of implementation and assessment of different dimensions of spouse abuse can make this questionnaire a suitable tool to be used for research purposes and for families’ evaluation in family counseling, and It is also suggested to other researchers that, given the importance of this tool in research literature, they should validate these tools for applying them in clinical settings. On the other hand, as the content of this questionnaire assesses the personal and confidential issues of individuals’ life, it is possible that the subjects act in a cautious manner to fill it out; this behavior can undermine the validity of the research, which can be one of the limitations  of the present study.
Acknowledgments
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.