Examining Patterns of Response From Parents on the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP).

Olivia Thomas-Meager*, Lindsay Druskin, B.A, Cheryl McNeil, Ph.D.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Lab, Department Of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Poster presentation)

Student’s Major: Child Development and Family Studies

The issue of child abuse and maltreatment is one that faces many children around the world and in order to more effectively study it we need to examine the ways it is assessed. One way to examine this problem is by using measures such as the CAPI and the BCAP which both screen for potential child abuse risk. The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) is a 160 item measure from which the 34 item Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP) developed. Because of the negative connotation surrounding the issue of child maltreatment both measures include a lie scale score which is used to indicate if participants respond in a way that replicates the answer they think is desired. This index however has only been explored in the CAPI and has not yet been examined in the BCAP. Since this pattern of “faking good” responses has the power to invalidate data and lessen the quality and utility of the measure, it is important that we take a closer look at these behaviors. This study examined 91 child-parent dyads from Sydney Australia and seeks to understand the rates of valid and invalid responding with the use of the BCAP. By studying the prevalence of these responses with this measure we seek to better understand both why parents engage in these behaviors as well as how to improve the utility of measures such as this one that rely on self reporting from parents in order to identify risk for child maltreatment.

Funding: Federal Work Study

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course