Administration
The CAS has mostly been used in written self-report format in individual and group settings and has been used with women 16 years of age and over (13-15) and pregnant women. The clinical settings it has been used in include general practice, hospital emergency departments and antenatal clinics, where trained research assistants have given the questionnaire to participants to fill in by themselves. It has been used in telephone and face-to face interviews in several studies and this requires additional selection and training of interviewers. It has also been used in iPad format in the waiting room.
The following instructions and testing conditions are recommended to ensure the safety of participants:
The introductory information alerts participants that the questionnaire contains questions about emotional well being, including domestic violence.
It is best for administration to be conducted in a private setting. If respondents are mailed it at home it is vital that some checking beforehand has occurred as to whether this is safe or not for the woman e.g. during the recruitment and consent procedures.
There should be an opportunity given to respondents to ask clarifying questions either by phoning or speaking to a research assistant.
The research assistant should be trained in a distress protocol.
All participants (regardless of whether abused or not) should be given a resource card to access available counselling services.
Most women can complete the CAS in 5 minutes, or in less than 15 minutes with associated questions about socio-demographics and lifetime abuse.