Child Abuse Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Child Abuse, including details on family violence, examinations, long-term effects, psychiatrics disorders.

Weekly problems scales: instruments for sexually abused youth and their nonoffending parents in treatment.

Sawyer GK, Tsao EH, Hansen DJ, Flood MF

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.

This study's purpose was to determine if efficient measures could be created to assess multiple problematic behaviors identified in youth who were sexually abused and in treatment. Because of the lack of easily administered brief instruments that assess multiple domains of interest in this population, complementary parent and child assessment measures were developed. The Weekly Problems Scale-Child Version (WPSC) and the Weekly Problems Scale-Parent Version (WPS-P) were created to monitor the weekly progress of the child and family in treatment and focus specifically on common areas of difficulties in this population. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assist in identifying the number of underlying dimensions in the scales. Results indicate that the WPS-C and WPS-P demonstrate adequate internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity. The WPS-C and WPSP display significant promise as research and clinical assessment tools for use with youth who are sexually abused and their nonoffending parents in treatment.

Published 29 December 2005 in Child Maltreat, 11(1): 34-48.
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