Preliminary psychometric analysis of an instrument to evaluate the recognition of situations of child abuse (I-REC) in Chile

Preliminary psychometric analysis of a tool for evaluating the recognition of child abuse situations (I-REC) in Chile. In Chile there are no scales to assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed to reduce severe childhood abuse and to increase the chances of help to their victims. The present study describes the process of development and validation of an instrument to assess indicators of recognition of situations of serious child maltreatment. Data of 132 children (M = 10.93 years; SD = 3.35 years; range: 6-17 years) who were treated at centers specialized in child maltreatment into NGO Paicabi was analyzed. The results show that the instrument has a three-factor structure (Individual, Familiar, and Context), which is consistent with the Ecological Model to better understand child abuse (Belsky, 1980; Brofenbrenner, 1987) and supports the validity of the scale. In addition, the results show convergent validity of the instrument due to the fact that their scores are directly associated with a score of protection indicators in situations of child maltreatment; and inversely associated with the incidence of child abuse. These results support the use of this instrument in the Chilean context. However, since it is a tool applied by therapists, rigorous training is necessary prior to its use.