Psychometric study of the political violence support scale in a sample of Chilean university students

This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of reliability and validity of the Political Violence Support (PVS) scale in a sample of Chilean university students. A cross-sectional design and non-probabilistic convenience sampling were employed, involving 480 participants (61% women, 37.8% men, and 1.2% other gender), aged between 18 and 45 years (M = 21.35; SD = 2.93). The results obtained through structural equation modelling confirmed the unidimensionality of the PVS, with adequate fit indicators and satisfactory levels of reliability, as indicated by internal consistency. Criterion validity showed positive and significant correlations of small effect size with all dimensions of the Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA) scale and with one dimension of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale. Furthermore, factor invariance analyses provided evidence of configural, metric, and scalar equivalence across sex and age groups. Collectively, the results support the use of the adapted version of the PVS for assessing attitudes that support political violence among Chilean university students.