Psychometric Properties of The Five-Item Victimization of Exploitation (FIVE) Scale: A Measure of Financial Abuse of Older Adults

Background and objectives: Elder mistreatment affects at least 1 in 10 older adults. Financial abuse, or exploitation, of older adults is among the most commonly reported forms of abuse. Few validated measures exist to measure this construct. We aim to present a new psychometrically validated measure of financial abuse of older adults.

Research design and methods: Classical test theory and item response theory (IRT) methodologies were used to examine a five-item measure of financial abuse of older adults, administered as part of the New York State Elder Mistreatment Survey.

Results: Factor analysis revealed a single factor best fits the data, which we labeled as financial abuse. Moreover, IRT analyses revealed that these items discriminated well between abused and nonabused persons and provided information at high levels of the latent trait θ, as is expected in cases of abuse.

Discussion and implications: The Five-Item Victimization of Exploitation Scale has acceptable psychometric properties and has been used successfully in large-scale survey research. We recommend this measure as an indicator of financial abuse in elder abuse, or mistreatment prevalence research studies.