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The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAP) is a widely used instrument to assess the potential for child abuse. The brief version of the CAP (BCAP) is a proven time-efficient screener tool. This investigation aims to propose a Spanish BCAP version by analyzing the factor structure of its Abuse Scale (aim 1) and, if needed, developing a valid BCAP Lie Scale (aim 2). Study 1 comprised 205 mothers with problems coping with their children's behavior recruited from family support and treatment programs. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency, and convergent validity were conducted. Study 2 applied an experimental between-subject design to assess a convenience sample of the Spanish population (N = 260) with 124 participants in Condition 1 (honest) and 136 in Condition 2 (lie). Differences between conditions were analyzed. Study 1: CFA showed adequate fit indices for the seven-factor model (RMSEA = .04 CFI = .98, TLI = .98). Internal consistency and convergent validity were adequate for the Abuse Scale. Findings also showed that the BCAP Lie Scale does not accomplish the main requirements to detect participants answering in a socially desirable way. Study 2: A new set of six items showing significant differences between conditions (U = 15,481.00, z = 11.14, p < .001, r = .77) is proposed to compose the Lie Scale. The findings support that the Spanish BCAP is a valid instrument to assess mothers recruited from Child Protection Services. The new BCAP Lie Scale could be useful to select valid inventories. Further research with more representative samples is recommended., Author(s): Gabriela R. Rivas [sup.1] , Ignacia Arruabarrena [sup.1] , Joaquín De Paúl [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.11480.3c, 0000000121671098, Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of the Basque [...]

Background: Implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) into real-world settings represents an organizational change that may be limited or facilitated by provider attitudes towards the adoption of new interventions and practices. The objective of the present study was to analyze psychometric properties of the Evidence Based Practices Attitude Scale (EBPAS) Spanish version in Child Welfare professionals. Method: The EBPAS 50-item version was administered to a sample of professionals (N = 240) providing services to children/adolescents and their families in Child Welfare Services from three Spanish regions. Results: Most of the dimensions measured by the EBPAS (50 items) were confirmed in the Spanish version administrated to Child Welfare professionals. Internal consistency reliabilities were fair to excellent. Provider attitudes varied by professional discipline and organizational context. Conclusions: The EBPAS Spanish version is an adequate instrument to be used as a measure of attitudes toward implementation of evidence-based practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prenatal period and the early years of life have an extraordinary importance on the physical and psychological well-being not only in the infancy, but throughout the life cycle. There is strong empirical evidence that early life is highly vulnerable to the negative effects of adverse experiences or toxic stress as maternal prenatal anxiety or child maltreatment. Research in the field of developmental neurobiology provides important keys about the mechanisms across these experiences affect the process of child development provoking alterations and dysfunctions in brain architecture. Such alterations tend to be persistent and increase the risk of physical, cognitive, social and emotional problems along infancy, adolescence and adulthood. The evidences clearly support the need and social relevancy of implementing early intervention preventive programs for children and families who are at risk for experiencing toxic stress. Such policies and programs should begin as early as possible in order to reduce or avoid the need of most costly and less effective remediation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study investigated several components of a social information-processing model of child physical abuse. The main objective was to examine the extent to which high-risk, relative to low-risk, mothers differed in their evaluations, attributions, negative affect, and disciplinary choices for children's behavior, and to explore whether these differences may be expressed in interactions between risk status and mitigating information. Method: Nineteen high- and 19 matched low-risk mothers' evaluations of children transgressions, attributions, affect, and choices of disciplinary techniques were examined using six vignettes depicting a child engaging in moral, conventional, and personal transgressions. One-half of the vignettes contained mitigating information and one-half did not. High- and low-risk mothers were chosen based on their potential for physical child abuse. A three-factor (2 x 3 X 2) design was used to assess the dependent variables. Results: As expected, high-risk, relative to low-risk, mothers reported more hostile intent, stable and global attributions, aversiveness, annoyance, and use of power-assertion discipline. A risk group by type of transgression interaction was found for evaluation and indifference and a risk group by mitigating information interaction was found for evaluation of wrongness, internal attributions, and aversiveness. A risk by type of transgression by mitigating information interaction was found for global/specific attributions, aversiveness, and indifference toward child transgressions. Conclusions: Results support a social information processing model of child physical abuse, which suggests that high-risk, compared to low-risk, mothers process child-related information differently and use more power-assertive disciplinary techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The main objective was to know social representations about child maltreatment (severity, etiology, and intervention strategies) of the general population and the professionals working with children in the Caribbean area of Colombia., Method: Sample was composed for 402 participants. From this pool of participants, 111 of them were working in child protection, 95 worked with children but not in the child protection system and 196 pertained to the general population. All participants answered to a questionnaire composed by 86 items. The questionnaire was developed to assess (1) the perceived severity of different typologies of child abuse, (2) opinions about risk factors for child maltreatment and sexual abuse, and (3) opinions about the most adequate ways of intervention with perpetrator of child abuse., Results: Sexual abuse is considered as the most severe typology of child maltreatment and emotional abuse is considered as more severe than physical abuse. No differences between groups were found in perceived severity of typologies of child maltreatment. Differences in the social representation about the etiology of child maltreatment were found. Professionals working in the child protection system give more value to characteristics of parents and to the socio-economic and familiar environment in the etiology of child maltreatment than participants from the general population. Prevention and treatment programs for abusers were considered as the more relevant strategies against child maltreatment., Discussion: Findings of present study suggest that social representations about child maltreatment of general population and professionals from the Caribbean area of Colombia are similar than social representation observed in other regions and countries. It is important to take into account that child labor and child poverty were considered as non-severe typologies of child maltreatment. Moreover, findings suggest that people from general population in the Caribbean area of Colombia have a relevant knowledge about agencies working for child protection.