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Use of Multiple Informants to Assess Children's Maltreatment Experiences

NCJ Number
151375
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1994) Pages: 227-248
Author(s)
J Kaufman; B Jones; E Stieglitz; L Vitulano; A P Mannarino
Date Published
1994
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This report concerns attempts to assess children¦s maltreatment experiences on the basis of more than reports of protective service workers. Data were also obtained from parents, medical records, and clinical observations.
Abstract
Fifty-six children from 34 families receiving protective services for verified reports of physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional maltreatment participated in the study. Review of the parent and medical record data led to identification of 28 children who had additional types of maltreatment experiences that had not been reported by their protective service workers and 24 cases in which the abuse was more severe than had been reported. Information from the different sources of data was synthesized to create a ratings scale for four categories of maltreatment experiences. Data demonstrating the relationship between these ratings and various indexes of the children¦s socioemotional and cognitive functioning were presented to provide preliminary support for the validity of the scales. The findings of this study suggest that multiple sources of data should be examined in order to obtain accurate assessments of children's maltreatment experiences, and that independent raters can synthesize discrepant data to obtain reliable and valid estimates of children's abuse history. Clinical and methodological issues relevant to the improved assessment of children's maltreatment experiences are also discussed. Tables, references

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