The use of the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory in the general population in Finland
Date
2019
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Publisher
Scandinavian journal of primary health care
Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this research was to analyze psychometric information in the Brief
Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP) in a Finnish general population sample.
Design: A self-report survey of parents in a primary health care setting and a hospital setting
was used to evaluate the use of the BCAP.
Setting: The study population consisted of parents who were visiting one of the following contexts: a primary maternity health care clinic, a child health care clinic, and the maternity outpatient clinic, various pediatric outpatient clinics, the general pediatric ward, the pediatric
surgical ward, or the neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital setting.
Subjects: The BCAP was given to parents at the 30–34th week of pregnancy, when the child
was 5 months old or all parents depending on the context. The BCAP was delivered to 759
parents. The final size of the sample was 453 respondents.
Main outcome measure: The BCAP, which consisted of 25 items to screen child abuse potential
and nine items for evaluation of respondent validity.
Results: The internal consistency of the Abuse Risk Scale was good (.770), and the validity scales
worked well. The factor structure mirrors with the original factors structure.
Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the BCAP reported in the analysis suggest that the
BCAP could be a valid instrument to detect child abuse potential in the general population in
Finnish health care settings. However, among Finnish respondents there is very little variation in
some parts of the measure, which suggests that further research should assess the validity of
the instrument in representative samples. Further analysis is also needed to evaluate the correct
classification rate of the BCAP.
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Keywords
child abuse, child maltreatment, prevention, risk, research, parents, family practice, International Resources, Finland
Citation
Ellonen, N., Rantanen, H., Lepistö, S., Helminen, M., & Paavilainen, E. (2019). The use of the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory in the general population in Finland. Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 37(1), 128-134.