The long term goal of the present research program is to accumulate adequate psychometric data on the Child Abuse Potential Inventory, a screening device for child abuse, which would allow release of the instrument for general use. The proposed research is designed to complete the initial (development stage) validity research on the Inventory, to provide data on Inventory related screening issues defined as relevant by professionals in the field, to more fully delineate the Inventory's limitations and to provide information on possible Inventory uses/misuses. Cross-validation data will be obtained from abuse and control subjects in two states to provide information on the Inventory's misclassification rates (false positives and false negatives). A predictive validity study will correlate Inventory scores from parents reported for abuse with subsequent confirmation/nonconfirmation of abuse. This study will parallel the typical screening situation in which the Inventory will be used in actual practice. A recidivism study will investigate the relationship between posttreatment Inventory scores from abusers and neglectors and subsequent reports of reabuse and reneglect. An attachment study will correlate Inventory scores with behavioral data (i.e., type of attachment of child), which has been shown to be associated with abuse. A treatment study will investigate the effectiveness of employing Inventory factor scores in treatment planning. Since the Inventory abuse scale includes distress and problems factors, a misclassification study, suggested by the National center for Child Abuse and Neglect (6/83), will provide additional estimates of the Inventory's misclassification rates for groups of """"""""nurturing"""""""" parents and for groups of parents under stress (e.g., parents of pediatric patients with injury/illness and parents with personal injury/illness). This study will determine if a higher proportion of these parents are mislabeled by the Inventory. Finally, a survey will gather information from practitioners to determine perceived uses/misuses so that appropriate caveats can be included in a users Manual.
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