Assessing Child Maltreatment: The Role of Testing

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, Sep 2017

Due to the recent development of test instruments designed to assist professionals in the evaluation of child maltreatment cases, social service professionals must become familiar with issues related to test construction and use. The purpose of the present paper is to provide the reader with a discussion of issues related to test selection and use. This article, however, is not Intended to be a substitute for a basic understanding of the test validity and reliability. The paper begins with a review of different prevention modes and discusses how each mode uses test data. Next, test use as it relates to assessment is outlined. Within the context of assessment, types of test classification errors are discussed. Finally, a number of general test Issues that can affect test results are presented.

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Assessing Child Maltreatment: The Role of Testing

e Journal of Sociology ssessing C hild M altreat m ent: T he Role of Testing Joel S. Milner Recommended Citation Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol13/iss1/6 Follow this and additional works at; https; //scholarworks; wmich; edu/jssw - C hild M Role of Testing Article 6. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Social Work at ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact Assessing Child Maltreatment: The Role of Testing Joel S.Milner Western Carolina University Callowhee, North Carolina Due to the recent development of test instruments designed to assist professionals in the evaluation of child maltreatment cases, social service professionals must become familiar with issues related to test construction and use. The purpose of the present paper is to provide the reader with a discussion of issues related to test selection and use. This article, however, is not Intended to be asubstitute for a basic understanding of the test validity and reliability. The paper begins with a review of different prevention modes and discusses how each mode uses test data. Next, test use as it relates to assessment is outlined. Within the context of assessment, types of test classification errors are discussed. Finally, anumber of general test Issues that can affect test results are presented. Assessing Child Maltreatment: The Role of Testing In the past decade, a large number of checklists, surveys, and test instruments have been developed to assist the protective service worker in the assessment and treatment of parents suspected of child abuse and neglect. While most of these instruments have little or no information on their validity and reliability, an increasing number of scales do provide appropriate psychometric data, which allows the test user to evaluate the usefulness and accuracy of the test. Several assessment tools on which some psychometric data has been accumulated include the Michigan Screening Profile of Parenting (MSPP) scale (Helfer et al., 1978; Schneider, 1982) , the Conflict Tactics (CT) scales (Straus, 1979), the Childhood Level of Living (CLL) scale (Polansky et al., 1972; Polansky et al., 1978) , the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin, 1983), and the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory (Milner, 1980; Milner etal., 1984) . These instruments measure behaviors extending from general problems in parenting (e.g., MSPP) to specific maltreatment problems, such as physical child abuse (e.g., CAP Inventory). Since these and similar instruments will be available in increasing numbers in the future, the purpose of this article is to discuss the appropriate role such instruments should play in the assessment of child maltreatment cases. It is not the purpose of this paper to provide an extensive discussion of technical issues related to test validity and reliability. Rather, the focus of this paper will be on theoretical issues which will enable the reader to select and use tests appropriately once test validity and reliability has been determined. Since the degree of emphasis on test use and the type of classification error a professional wishes to avoid varies as afunction of the prevention mode, the present paper will begin with an exploration of the role of testing in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Following this discussion, the role of testing in assessment will be presented. The assessment section, which will include a general paradigm for assessment, Is provided to give the reader a conceptual guide to the appropriate use of test instruments in screening and diagnosis. Within the context of assessment, the different types of test misclassifications and their associated problems will be delineated. This information should enable the professional to deal more appropriately with classification errors. The article will conclude with a discussion of additional issues related to the selection and use of tests in the assessment of child maltreatment cases. Types of Prevention Inthe field of prevention, three types of prevention efforts have been distinguished. As previously mentioned, the three types are primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention assumes that all families in society are more or less at risk of abuse, neglect and/or problems in parenting because of our mobile, impersonal, and generally stressful society. Given this assumption, primary prevention is not concerned with screening or diagnostic activities. It is not concerned with the testing of abusive or neglectful Individuals or with the preselection of at-risk groups suffering from poor parenting or other Identifiable dysfunctions. Since all families are believed to be at risk, professionals involved in primary prevention are not concerned with misclassification issues. Rather, they are concerned with increasing the number of community support systems available to all families by promoting related legislation and (...truncated)


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Joel S. Milner. Assessing Child Maltreatment: The Role of Testing, The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 2018, Volume 13, Issue 1,