NCJ Number
232431
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 34 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2010 Pages: 671-676
Date Published
September 2010
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Using a shorter, single-page version of the 4-page version of the Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) Awareness Assessment (Russell and Britner, 2006) used in a previous study, the current study examined whether the shorter version is ready for use by child abuse prevention specialists in engaging caregivers of infants in a conversation about safely responding to a crying infant.
Abstract
The study determined that for those working to prevent SBS, the SBS Awareness Assessment - short form provides a reliable, brief survey of attitudes toward responding to a crying infant. The use of this measure will be a valuable addition to service providers' existing tools for engaging parents in conversations about their beliefs on soothing and disciplining their infants; however, it is not intended for use in predicting caregivers' risk for shaking a crying baby. This measure is more effective than a general abuse screening tool, because it may lead to conversations about how best to cope with an infant's inconsolable crying by focusing on the alternatives caregivers can use in safely dealing with crying infants in stressful situations. A sample of 370 adults completed the short version of the measure during 2008. Participants were recruited from a university psychology department. They were asked to use a 6-point Likert scale in rating 12 items on the three scales: soothing techniques, discipline techniques, and potential for injury. Each item asks whether a given caregiver action is appropriate for use in each of these three contexts. The majority of the items were taken from the original measure and simplified. 1 figure, 14 references, and appended SBS Awareness Assessment - short version