Associations Between Parent Characteristics and Invalid Responses on the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory

Serena Roberts*, Samantha Holbert, Miranda Signorelli, Lindsay R. Druskin, B.A., Robin C. Han, MS.Ed., Christopher K. Owen, M.S., Jane Kohlhoff, Ph.D., & Cheryl B. McNeil, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Poster presentation)

Student’s Major: Psychology

Child abuse is an extensive problem, affecting millions worldwide (Stoltenborgh et al., 2015). It is critical to understand parent-level factors associated with child abuse potential to inform effective prevention strategies. The widely-used Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP; Ondersma et al., 2005), which identifies parents at risk for child abuse, produces a “faking-good” score that indicates patterns of socially desirable responding (i.e., lying). Parents’ responses are invalidated when this Lie score is elevated and have largely been excluded from current research. However, such responses identify a potentially critical subset of parents that may be at elevated risk for child abuse due to their efforts to portray themselves more positively. This study seeks to understand key aspects of parenting stress (i.e., from their parental role, perception of their child as difficult, and dysfunctional parent-child interactions) as they relate to differences between parents with valid and invalid BCAP responses.

In a sample of 84 caregiver-child dyads, parents with invalidated profiles (n = 43) had significantly higher risk for child abuse (p < .001) than those with valid responses (n = 41). Parents involved in a larger treatment study completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI; Abidin, 2012) and the BCAP during the pre-treatment assessment. This study examines the under-researched invalid responses on the BCAP and levels of parenting stress within this at-risk group of parents to further our understanding of why parents may respond in this way and to improve the utility of self-reported data on key parenting behaviors implicated in child abuse.

Funding: Not funded

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