SPSS SYNTAX FOR CREATING
SCALE SCORES FOR THE CTSPC
Murray A. Straus
Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824 603-862-2594 mas2@christa.unh.edu http:/pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2
The CTS is a simple behavior self-report instrument. However, those behavior reports can be used to create a very large number of scores. This document focuses on the syntax needed to create these scores. For explanations of the various scores and when it is appropriate to use one or the other, see the sections on scoring in papers CTS15 and 17, and paper CTS28 which contains the most detailed information on scoring (all three available on my website, address above).
Although it may be possible to score the CTS using the pull-down menus, it will take much less time to do it by typing the syntax into the syntax window of SPSS because the syntax for one item or one scale can then be edited to compute the scores for other items and scales.
FOUR VERSIONS OF ITEMS AND SCALES
It is possible, and often desirable, to create four versions of each of the CTS items and each of the scales. See the discussion in paper CTS28.
Letter used
Version in
Var. Name
Year = Yearly frequency Y
Chronicity = Yearly chronicity C
Prevalence = Yearly prevalence P
Ever = Ever prevalence E
The syntax in this document creates the four versions by first creating four versions of each item.
Year Frequency items: Range = 0 to 25. Category 7 (not in the past year, but happened before), and category 8 (Happened, but not this year) recoded to be Zero.
Year Chronicity items: Range = 1 to 25. This measures how often each act was done in the previous 12 months, among those parents who did it at least once in the previous 12 months. Categories 7 (not, this year but did happen) and 8 (never happened) were recoded to -999 and flagged as missing.
Year Prevalence items: Range = 0-100. Category 1 through 6 = 100. Category 7 (not this year) and 8 (not this year, but previously) were recoded to zero. The recoding to 100 was done to make the statistical output be in the form of a percentage rather than a proportion.
Ever Prevalence items: Range = 0-1. Categories 1 (once this year) through 7 (happened, but not this year) were recoded as 100. Category 8 (never happened) was recoded as zero.
VARIABLE NAMES FOR CTSPC SCALES
Each CTS scale is identified by a five character variable name. For example, CCD1Y, CTD1Y. The explanation for each charter is:
Char
acter
1,2 Item or Scale
Item names begin with CC, Scale names begin with CT
3 Scale: D, C, P, N, V or S
D = Non-Violent Discipline
C = Corporal Punishment
P = Psychological Aggression
A = Physical Abuse
V = Violence (combined C and A)
N = Neglect
X = Sexual Abuse
4 Severity level: 1, 2, or 3
1 = Minor level
2 = Severe level
3 = Total (i.e., all levels combined)
5 VERSION: Y, C, P, or E There are four versions or metrics for each CTS scale
Y = Frequency: sum of the Y items
C = Chronicity: Scores of zero are flagged as missing
P = Prevalence: Scores of 1 THRU HIGH are recoded as 100
E = Ever Modes: The number of items with non-zero scores
Notes: (1) Non-Violent Discipline scale. There is no P version because everyone did at least one of the acts.
(2) Sexual Abuse. There are no Y or C versions of these scales
(3) Ever scales can also be transformed to a dichotomous Ever-Never variable like the Ever items.
ITEMS IN EACH CTSPC SCALE
Scale
CTD NON-VIOLENT DISCIPLINE Q10 A+B+E+Q
CTP1 PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION: ORDINARY Q10 F+N
CTP2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION: SEVERE Q10 J+L+U
CTP3 PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION: OVERALL CTP1+CTP2
CTC1 CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: ORDINARY Q10H+P+Q10C
(10C is only for child 2+)
CTC2 CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: SEVERE Q10 D+R+V
CTC3 CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: OVERALL CTC1+CTC2
CTA1 PHYSICAL ABUSE Q10 O+T+Q10C(for child <2)
CTA2 PHYSICAL ABUSE: SEVERE Q10 G+I+K+M+S
CTA3 PHYSICAL ABUSE: OVERALL CTA1+CTA2
CTV PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: OVERALL CTC3+CTA3
CTN NEGLECT Q12 A+B+C+D+E
CTXC SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILD Q30, Q31
CTXR SEXUAL ABUSE OF RESPONDENT Q28, Q29
INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPUTING SCALES
Yearly Frequency Versions
COMPUTE CTDY=Q10YA+Q10YB+Q10YE+Q10YQ.
VAR LABELS CTDY 'CTS NON-VIOLENT DISCIPLINE-YEAR'.
MISSING VALUES CTDY (-999).
Repeat above for each of the other scales (CTP1, CTP2 etc). Each label starts with CTS and ends with -YEAR.
Chronicity Versions
COMPUTE CTDC=CTDY.
RECODE CTDC (0 = -999).
VAR LABELS CTDC 'CTS NON-VIOLENT DISCIPLINE - CHRONICITY'.
MISSING VALUES CTDC (-999).
Repeat above for each scale
Prevalence Versions
COMPUTE CTP1P=CTP1F.
RECODE CTP1P (1 THRU HI = 100).
MISSING VALUES CT1P (-999).
VALUE LABELS CTP1P 100'1+THIS YR' 0'NOT THIS YR'.
MISSING VALUES CTP1P (-999).
Repeat above for each scale except scale D Non-Violent Discipline scale. There is no P version for this scale because there are almost no parents who did not do at least one of the items.
Ever Modes
These versions measure the number of modes (items) in each scale had ever been used. For example, there are five non-violent discipline items. Thus, a parent could have used none, 1, 2, 3, or all five of these modes of non-violent discipline.
COMPUTE CTP1E=(Q10EA+Q10EB+Q10EE+Q10EQ) / 1600.
VAR LABELS CTDY 'CTS NON-VIOLENT DISCIPLINE-EVER#MODES'.
MISSING VALUES CTP1E (-999).
Each label should start with CTS and end with -EVR#MODES
Sexual
Abuse
If these items are part of the data gathered, they should recoded to put the categories in ascending ordinal sequence.
Q28 & Q29 RESP0NDENT TOUCHED OR FORCED SEXUALLY BEFORE 18
Old
Value Label Value Recode
yes, more than once 1 2
yes, just once 2 1
no did not happen 3 0
don’t know or refused ‑999
Q30 & Q31 your child‑touched or forced sexually
Old
Value Label Value Recode
yes, more than once 1 3
yes, just once 2 2
happened‑not this yr 3 1
no never happened 4 0
don’t know or refused ‑999
There are no Y or C versions of the sexual abuse scales, only Ever and Prevalence versions for the child, and only Ever version for sexual abuse of the respondent
COUNT CTXCP=Q30 Q32 (2 3).
COUNT CTXCE=Q30 Q32 (1 2 3).
COUNT CTXRE=Q28 Q29 (1 2)
RECODE CTXCP CTXCE CTXRE (1,2 =1OO).
VARIABLE LABELS CTXCP 'SEXUAL ABUSE: CHILD-YEAR'
/CTXCE 'SEXUAL ABUSE: CHILD-EVER'
/CTXRE 'SEXUAL ABUSE OF RESPONDENT-EVER'.
VALUE LABELS CTXCP CTXE CTXRE 100'YES' 0'NO'.