NCJ Number
218932
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: May 2007 Pages: 223-229
Date Published
May 2007
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Using a nonclinical sample of randomly selected mothers (n=362) with 4-to-11-year-old children in Belgium (Flanders), this study tested the reliability and validity of the Dutch Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory, a screening instrument that measures parents' potential for child physical abuse.
Abstract
The Abuse scale of the Dutch CAP Inventory showed high internal consistency and split-half reliability. The difference between the Flemish and the American samples in the testing of the CAP Inventory probably reflects the importance Flemish mothers give to their role as a parent and to family values. Flemish mothers presented themselves in a better light than American mothers and tended to ignore negative perceptions of their children. This implies that the American cut-off point for the calculation of the Faking-good index could not be used with Flemish mothers. The mean and the standard deviation of the Abuse scale were comparable to the means and standard deviations of nurturing parents without a history of abuse and were substantially lower than the means and standard deviations of physically abusive parents and parents with a history of abuse. The study provides support for theoretical views on disturbed or problematic parenting as a significant predictor of child physical abuse and to the cross-cultural generalizability of Abuse scale scores as a measure of parents' potential for child physical abuse. The current study used the CAP Inventory's Abuse scale, the Lie scale, the Random Response scale, and the Inconsistency scale. The CAP Inventory scores were calculated with the CAPSCORE for the Child Abuse Potential Inventory program (Milner and Robertson 1985). 2 tables and 43 references