Community understanding of violence against women

Community attitudes and beliefs embrace gender equality and condemn all forms of gendered violence without exception.

Increased community understanding of the behaviours that constitute GBV.

The mean score on the Understanding of Violence against Women Scale (UVAWS).

An increase in community understanding of behaviours that constitute gendered violence would indicate improvements in Australians’ understanding of gender-based violence.

2021

The mean score for the understanding violence against women (UVAWS) scale.

Data element : Mean score—understanding of violence
Data source: NCAS
Data source type: Survey

NA

Data element: NA
Data source: NA
Data source type: NA

This measure is expressed as a mean score.

Numerator only.

For each reference period, nationally, by: 

• state and territory
• gender
• age
• sexuality
• remoteness
• subscale (Recognise VAW, Recognise DV, Gendered DV).

The NCAS sample consists of Australians aged 16 years or over.

The UVAWS comprises three psychometrically validated subscales, each measuring a different conceptual aspect of understanding of violence against women:

• The Recognise VAW Subscale comprises four items that ask whether problematic behaviours are a form of violence against women on a four-point scale: “yes, always”, “yes, usually”, “yes, sometimes” and “no”. 
• The Recognise DV Subscale comprises 12 items that ask whether problematic behaviours are a form of domestic violence on a four-point scale: “yes, always”, “yes, usually”, “yes, sometimes”, “no”. 
• The Understand Gendered DV Subscale comprises three items that examine understanding of the gendered nature of domestic violence by asking about who is more likely to perpetrate and experience fear and harm from domestic violence: “men”, “women”, or “both equally”.

Rasch analysis was used to compute a (rescaled Rasch) score for each respondent. Scores on each scale could range from 0 to 100, with higher scores representing higher understanding of violence or higher rejection of problematic attitudes.
Higher scores on the UVAWS and its subscales indicate higher understanding of violence.