The present study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate a culturally sensitive instrument, the women’s empowerment in dealing with intimate partner violence (WED-IPV) scale, in Iran.

A mixed-methods research study to collect and analyse quantitative and qualitative data.

Social emergency centres, healthcare centres and psychotherapy clinics in three Iranian metropolises.

The participants were 31 married women in the qualitative phase and 420 in the quantitative phase.

The primary outcome was the validation of the WED-IPV scale, including the assessment of face, content, construct validity and the assessment of internal consistency through Cronbach’s alpha, test–retest reliability through intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and stability of the factor structure. Secondary outcomes included the assessment of WED-IPV indicators in women using values obtained from levels specified according to the Interval of SD from the Mean formula for each indicator and total empowerment.

The scale development process refined the initial 72 items down to 28 key items through expert review and validity testing. Exploratory factor analysis identified five factors: self-esteem, attitude, self-efficacy, access to support resources and economic empowerment that explained 65.72% of the variance. The scale showed excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α=0.97; ICC=0.95) and valid associations with related measures. Analysis of completed questionnaires of 412 women revealed that a significant portion scored low or moderate in each domain: 41% in self-esteem, 35% in self-efficacy, 39% in attitude, 47% in access to support and 45% in economic empowerment.

The WED-IPV scale is a psychometrically robust, reliable and valid instrument for assessing women’s empowerment concerning IPV in Iranian contexts. Its brevity and user-friendly design facilitate routine application in primary and secondary care settings. Future research should explore cross-cultural validation and predictive validity in longitudinal studies to inform targeted interventions and policy formulation.