Assessment of attitudinal beliefs towards violence in educational centres: el CAHV-25

Abstract

A new questionnaire has been developed in order to have a brief and manageable instrument for the assessment of attitudes towards violence in educational centres. The original pool of 45 items with six theoretical factors, constructed and reviewed using accurate standards, was filled out by 275 subjects. The analyses concluded with the selection of 25 items with four factors: “Violence as a form of diversion” (7 items); “Violence to improve the self-esteem” (5 items); “Violence to manage socials problems and relationships” (6 items), and “Violence perceived as legitimate” (7 items). Both the questionnaire and all 4 factors show a high internal consistency (between .68 and .90). This instrument has got an easy use and interpretation and could be useful to develop predictive models of the violence behaviour in educational contexts.

Key words: Attitudes, school violence, adolescents, construction, scale.