The Social Behavior Inventory for Children in a Child Abuse Treatment Program: Development of a Tool to Measure Interpersonal Behavior

Abstract

This article presents information about a tool that can be completed in a few minutes to measure the interpersonal behavior of children participating in a child abuse treatment program. One sample of children came from the community and had no reported history of abuse or mental health services. A second sample was children obtaining therapy services through a child abuse treatment program. Factor analysis of scores provided by parents for their children obtaining therapy services led to the development of three scales to assess aversive interpersonal behavior, two to measure prosocial interpersonal behavior, and one to measure total interpersonal competence. Numerous indices of reliability and validity are presented. Data delineated the potential value of the scales for assessing the impact of therapy. The current results suggested that the Social Behavior Inventory may have value as a measure of interpersonal behavior when providing therapy to children in a child abuse treatment program if used prudently.