SOPAS: Subtle and Overt Psychological Abuse of Women Scale

Marshall, L. L. (2000). Available from Linda L. Marshall at the University of North

Texas, Department of Psychology, 1155 Union Circle # 311280, Denton, Texas
76205-5017

Three variations in response scales are suggested.

For a sample of battered women (e.g., a shelter, police or emergency room sample).
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11
never several

times a day
0 = never
1 = once
2 = only a couple of times
3 = every few months
4 = about every other month
5 = about once a month
6 = about twice a month
7 = about every week
8 = a few times a week
9 = almost daily
10 = every day
11 = several times a day

For other samples these two scales work well, depending on the purpose.
0 1 2 3 4 5
never once a great many times

or
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
never almost daily
0 = never
1 = once
2 = only a couple of times
3 = every few months
4 = about every other month
5 = about once a month
6 = about twice a month
7 = about every week
8 = a few times a week
9 = almost daily

Most of these things happen in all relationships. These are things your partner may do
in a loving, joking or serious way. Choose a number from the above scale to show
how often he does each thing.

HOW OFTEN DOES HE...

____ play games with your head
____ act like he knows what you did when he wasn't around
____ blame you for him/her being angry or upset
____ change his mind but not tell you until it's too late
____ discourage you from having interests that he isn't part of
____ do or say something that harms your self-respect or your pride in yourself
____ encourage you to do something then somehow make it difficult to do it
____ belittle, find fault or put down something you were pleased with or felt good
about
____ get more upset than you are when you tell him how you feel
____ make you feel bad when you did something he didn't want you to do
____ make you feel like nothing you say will have an effect on him
____ make you choose between something he wants and something you want or need
____ say or do something that makes you feel unloved or unlovable
____ make you worry about whether you could take care of yourself
____ make you feel guilty about something you have done or have not done
IN A LOVING, JOKING OR SERIOUS WAY, HOW OFTEN DOES HE...
____ use things you've said against you, like if you say you made a mistake, how
often does
he use that against you later
____ make you worry about your emotional health and well-being
____ make you feel like you have to fix something he did that turned out badly
____ put himself first, not seeming to care what you want
____ get you to question yourself, making you feel insecure or less confident
____ remind you of times he was right and you were wrong
____ say his actions, which hurt you, are good for you or will make you a better
person
____ say something that makes you worry about whether you're going crazy
____ act like he owns you
____ somehow make you feel worried or scared even if you're not sure why
____ somehow make it difficult for you to go somewhere or talk to someone
____ somehow keep you from having time for yourself
____ act like you over-react or get too upset
____ get upset when you did something he didn't know about
____ tell you the problems in your relationship are your fault
____ interrupt or sidetrack you when you're doing something important
____ blame you for his problems
____ try to keep you from showing what you feel
____ try to keep you from doing something you want to do or have to do
____ try to convince you something was like he said when you know that isn't true

This scale was developed during Project HOW: Health Outcomes of Women. This
study was done with low income, ethnicallly diverse women. The study, begun in
1995, consisted of 6 waves of interviews, with the final wave completed in 2003.
Waves 1 to 4 were funded by grant #R49/CCR610508 from the National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control.
Wave 4 was also funded by grant #3691 from the Hogg Foundation for Mental
Health.
Wave 5 was funded by a joint grant (under the original number) from NCIPC
and the National Institute of Justice.
Wave 6 was funded by grant #2001-WT-BX-0504 to Linda L. Marshall and
Rebecca Weston (co-PIs) from the National Institute of Justice.
None of these funding agencies are responsible for the results.
Abbreviated summary of scale development
Initially 184 items were developed to address 35+ types of psychological
abuse identified in an earlier study (funded by grant #1R29 MH44217 from the
Traumatic Stress Research Brance of NIMH). The items were written so that,
whenever possible, each type of psychological abuse was operationalized in such a
way as to capture its essence if the male partner used a loving, joking, serious or
overtly abusive style. This was because the initial NIMH study showed severely
psychologically abusive men (including physical batterers) did not always engage in
these types of behavior in ways recognizable as offensive or hurtful. This scale
replaces the MP-HARM described in Marshall (1999).
Marshall’s perspective on psychological abuse is most evident in the following
sources.
Marshall, L. L. (1994). Physical and psychological abuse. In W. R. Cupach &
B. H. Spitzberg (Ed.), The dark side of interpersonal communication (pp. 281-311).
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Marshall, L. L. (1996). Psychological abuse of women: Six distinct clusters.
Journal of Family Violence, 11, 369-399.
Marshall, L. L. (1999). Effects of men's subtle and overt psychological abuse
on low income women. Violence and Victims, 14, 69-88.
Marshall, L. L., Weston, R., & Honeycutt, T. C. (2000). Does men's positivity
moderate or mediate the effects of their abuse on women's relationship quality?
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 661-676.

See also Jones, S., Davidson II, W.S., Bogat, G.A., Levendosky, A., & von Eye, A.
(2005). Validation of the Subtle and Overt Psychological Abuse Scale: An
Examination of construct validity. Violence and Victims, 20, 407-416.
This study used the earlier longer version of the scale.

As the sample consisted of low income women in three ethnic groups, the following
to tables show selected results for the sample as a whole and women in each group. In
Waves 1 and 2 women reported on the behavior of their original partner. (A long-term
relationship was one requirement for participation.) Of the 835 women who began the
study, 640 (76.6%) completed Wave 5. At Wave 1, 36.2% were African Americans,
32.7% were Euro-Americans and 31.1% were Mexican Americans. At Wave 5, 38.9%
were African Americans, 29.8% were Euro-Americans and 31.3% were Mexican
Americans. Thus, Euro-Americans were most likely to drop out over time. At Wave 1,
the poverty requirement was satisfied by a household income of less than 200% of the
poverty threshold or receipt of public aid from a poverty assistance program. Using
only income from work, the mean poverty status at Wave 1 was 91.4% (i.e., 8.6%
below the poverty threshold) and the median was 93.7%. When income from aid was
included the mean rose to 107.1% (i.e., 7.1% above the threshold) and median to
106%.

Factor analyses showed one factor accounting for the following % of variance.

Wave 1 Wave 2
Wave 5
1995-96 1997-98
1999-00
Entire sample 63.4% 60.4%
64.1%
African Americans 63.4% 58.1%
61.0%
Euro-Americans 66.8% 60.8%
63.9%
Mexican Americans 66.4% 64.1%
69.4%

Correlations between SOPAS scores across waves including only the women who
remained with the same man.

Waves 1-2 Wave 1-5

Waves 2-5

Entire Sample (N = 395) .68 .49

.57
African Americans (n = 116) .72 .41
.51
Euro-Americans (n = 137) .71 .60
.61
Mexican Americans (n = 142) .64 .48
.57