Dating violence among Portuguese emerging adults: psychometric properties of the conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory - short form

The Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory – Short Form (CADRI-S) was created as a concise, reliable, and valid self-report tool to assess healthy (non-abusive) and abusive conflict resolution strategies in adolescent romantic relationships. The instrument includes bidirectional questions to evaluate both victimisation and perpetration, as well as bidirectional violence in dating relationships (VDR). Despite these benefits, limited studies regarding its psychometric properties exist especially among samples of emerging adults. This study aimed to validate the CADRI-S in a Portuguese sample of 524 emerging adults. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supports the five-factor model of the CADRI-S. The five-factor model of the CADRI-S revealed an acceptable fit. Internal consistency was good through the analysis of the mean inter-item correlations. Good to acceptable values for concurrent, criterion, convergent, and discriminant validity were found. The results indicate that CADRI-S is an effective, concise, and psychometrically reliable tool for assessing VDR perpetration and victimisation, and bidirectional VDR in emerging adults.
This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (CIPsi; PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; UID/01662/2025) through the Portuguese State Budget. The Centre is registered under the DOI: https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/01662/2025. This work was also funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), under HEI-Lab R&D Unit (UIDB/05380/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05380/2020), and by national funds from FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., in the context of the R&D Unit: UID/04810/2025 – William James Centre for Research, and by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), under HEI- Lab R&D Unit (UID/05380/2025, UIDP/05380/2020, and UID/PRR/05380/2025; https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05380/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/05380/2020, and https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/PRR/05380/2025 https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05380/2020).