Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric validation of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) in Ecuadorian adult women

OBJECTIVE: To adapt the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) to the Ecuadorian context and examine its psychometric properties in a sample of adult women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A psychometric study was conducted using non-probability sampling. The sample comprised 746 Ecuadorian women aged 18 to 69 years from the Coastal, Andean, and Amazon regions of Ecuador, all of whom had been in a cohabiting intimate relationship for at least one year. Cultural adaptation was carried out through expert judgment by five specialists and a focus group of 10 women, which evaluated item clarity, language comprehensibility, and the adequacy of response options. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multigroup CFA to test measurement invariance, and internal consistency analyses using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega were performed. RESULTS: The Ecuadorian version of the WAST exhibited a unidimensional structure with adequate fit indices (CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.997, RMSEA = 0.060, SRMR = 0.043) and excellent reliability (α = 0.883, ω = 0.902). Measurement invariance was confirmed across age groups, marital status, educational level, and region. In addition, a moderate, positive, and significant correlation with the PHQ-9 was found (Spearman’s rho = 0.543, p < 0.001), supporting the convergent validity of the instrument. CONCLUSIONS: The Ecuadorian version of the WAST demonstrates evidence of internal structure validity, reliability, measurement invariance, and convergent validity. Its implementation is recommended in health care settings for the early detection of intimate partner violence and in scientific research.