DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE ADOLESCENTS AND CHILDREN RISK OF ABUSE AND MALTREATMENT COMMUNITY SCALE (ACRAM-CS)

The risk factors of child maltreatment have been studied by focusing on the characteristics of the victim or the close environment, leaving aside the community-related factors. We aimed to develop and provide psychometric properties of the Adolescents and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Community Scale (ACRAM-CS), a 21-item scale for the assessment of structural risk factors of child maltreatment. Structural validity, reliability, and convergent validity were studied for this measure in 608 cases - a sample informed by 286 child welfare workers: ages ranged from 0 to 18 years (M = 12.07, SD = 5.23). The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) corroborate the 6-dimension factor structure from the theoretical development, chi(2) = 286.78, df = 155, p <.001; CFI =.96; RMSEA =.04, 90% CI [.031,.044]. Results of convergent validity indicate a significant correlation with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) and the Cleveland-Child Abuse Potential Scale (C-CAPS).