The Healing after Gender-Based Violence Scale (GBV-Heal): An Instrument to Measure Recovery Progress in Women-Identifying Survivors

Abstract

Current literature has primarily equated gender-based violence recovery with an improvement of physical or mental health symptoms, causing a gap in our understanding of the impact of interventions beyond the amelioration of adverse symptomology. The purpose of this research was to create an instrument to holistically measure gender-based violence recovery based on survivor healing goals. Ethnographic interviews were conducted in women-identifying gender-based violence survivors (ages 18–76) to determine healing domains and develop items using survivor language ( n = 56). Focus groups with academic and community experts ( n = 12) and cognitive interviews with gender-based violence survivors ( n = 12) were conducted to ensure content and face validity, as well as to evaluate acceptability. This yielded a 31-item instrument to measure healing progress on a 5-point Likert scale. The Healing after Gender-based Violence Scale has the potential to highlight survivor strength and growth while more accurately measuring their recovery process based on survivor goals and desires.