Assessing coercive control in intimate partner relationships: psychometric validation and clinical thresholds of a French version of the Coercive Control Screening Scale (CCSS-F).

Background: Coercive control is increasingly conceptualized as a chronic relational pattern of domination that may function as a mechanism of traumatization over time. Sustained exposure to intimidation, isolation, surveillance, and credible threat has been linked to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD (CPTSD), and depressive symptomatology. Despite its relevance for trauma-informed assessment, no validated French-language instrument exists, and no empirically derived cutoff score has been established for the original Coercive Control Screening Scale (CCSS).Objective: This study aimed to translate and validate a French version of the CCSS (CCSS-F) and to establish the first empirically derived cutoff score to support clinically meaningful screening of coercive control exposure.Method: Following forward-backward translation and expert panel review, 304 French-speaking women (18-70 years) were recruited, including 225 community participants and 79 women receiving hospital-based psychiatric care for documented intimate partner violence and trauma-related difficulties. Participants completed the CCSS-F and validated measures of battering (WEB), relationship abuse, post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, relationship dissatisfaction, perceived social support, and social desirability. Factor structure (EFA/CFA), reliability (α, ω), construct validity, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted.Results: The CCSS-F demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α and ω > .90) and a stable unidimensional structure. Strong associations were observed with battering and relationship abuse (ρ > .80), and moderate associations with PTSD and depressive symptoms, supporting convergent validity. Associations with social desirability were non-significant. ROC analyses indicated acceptable discriminatory accuracy (AUC ≈ .78) and supported an empirically derived cutoff score (> 34), representing the first internationally proposed screening threshold for the CCSS.Conclusions: The CCSS-F is a psychometrically robust and clinically grounded screening instrument. By combining validation in a hospital-based trauma sample with the first empirically derived cutoff score, this study advances trauma-informed identification of coercive control and supports its integration into psychotraumatology research and clinical practice.