ASSESSING PHYSICAL CHILD-ABUSE RISK - THE CHILD-ABUSE POTENTIAL INVENTORY

To provide information on child abuse assessment, the psychometric base of the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory, a screening scale for physical child abuse, is described. A critical review of studies reporting on the reliability, construct validity, and predictive (concurrent and future) validity of the CAP Inventory physical abuse scale is provided. As part of the section on construct validity, I summarize the physical child abuse risk factors described in the family violence literature and examine the relationship between each of the risk factors and CAP abuse scores. Incremental validity estimates, derived from studies reporting predictive validity data, are reported. The utility of using the CAP abuse scale in treatment evaluation is also discussed. Throughout the review, inconsistencies in study findings and gaps in the psychometric base for the CAP abuse scale are noted.