KL Chan, DYT Fong, E Yan, CB Chow, P Ip

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of this research was to validate the Chinese Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire (JVQ) in a Chinese population. Design: A validation study. Setting: This study is based on the pilot study of the Optimus Study on Child Sexual Abuse in China. Participants: A representative sample of students aged 15 to 17 who were in Grades 10 to 12 at schools in a district of Hong Kong was recruited for the survey (N=415). Results: The Chinese JVQ demonstrated a good internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha exceeding 0.70 for almost all subscales and 0.89 for the total scale. Also, it correlated significantly with all the hypothesized psychosocial variables, namely depression, physical health, and mental health. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of the Chinese JVQ. Also, it finds that youth who suffer from victimisation are more likely to experience trauma symptoms. The authors suggest that such a scale is useful for measuring and identifying the victimisation patterns among youth within a Chinese population. Furthermore, the validation of the Chinese JVQ can lead to more multi-sites and cross-cultural studies.