NCJ Number
228912
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 833-841
Date Published
November 2009
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article examines the development and performance of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Child Abuse Screening Tool Children's Version (ICAST-C) on child victimization.
Abstract
The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Child Abuse Screening Tool Children's Version (ICAST-C) performed well on field testing. There were no reports of apparent adverse traumatic response from the nearly 600 children surveyed in 4 countries. Data anonymity was maintained and items were well-designed, with minimal ambiguity and appropriate translation. Compared to similar instruments used to query adults and children, the internal consistency reliability is quite good. The most important limitation of the instrument is its inability to estimate true prevalence rates fro specific victimizations or classes of victimization in each country that participated. The ICAST-C is a new, multinational, multicultural, and multilingual child abuse surveillance and research tool from the ISPCAN. It is representative of a completer toolkit to better understand child victimization anywhere in the world. This paper describes the survey development, ethical challenges, pilot testing, results, and instrument characteristics of the ICAST Children's instrument; one of three tools designed by ISPCAN to study the prevalence of childhood victimization. Tables and references