Development of Child Abuse Scale

Abstract

The aim of the study was to develop a reliable self report measure to identify maltreatment among children—across a broad range of parental abusive and neglecting behaviours towards children— that could be used to evaluate different levels and types of abuse and neglect, that is, physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect and sexual abuse among children of the age ranging from 8–12 years with specific reference to Pakistani cultural context. This indigenous measure comprised 34 items indicative of parental abusive and neglecting behaviours towards children, and was further organised into four categories of abuse and neglect: physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect and emotional care/neglect (low score on which was indicative of emotional neglect). A sample of 200 children (100 boys and 100 girls) taken from six different cities of Punjab indicated the measure to have a highly significant internal consistency measured by coefficient alpha for the total scale and its four sub-scales. Construct validity was determined with the help of Principal Component Factor Analysis that resulted in four-factor solution. Finally, the self report measure termed as Child Abuse Scale (CAS) comprised 34 items pertaining to four major categories of abuse and neglect, and these were labelled accordingly. The reasons for the exclusion of fifth category of sexual abuse have been discussed with special reference to Pakistani cultural and social set up.