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.

Creating and field-testing diagnostic criteria for partner and child maltreatment.

Heyman RE, Smith Slep AM

Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA. richard.heyman@stonybrook.edu

An integrated set of diagnostic criteria for partner abuse and child abuse and neglect were developed and tested in 4 studies conducted with a branch of America's largest family maltreatment protection agency (i.e., the U.S. military's Family Advocacy Program). Maltreatment criteria then in force were found to have adequate levels of content validity, but experts' and users' feedback indicated ambiguities and poorly specified criteria that undermined reliable application. Criteria incorporating elements of the best existing civilian and military operationalizations were developed and evaluated in two field trials. The final definitions were found to support very high levels of agreement (92%) between base adjudicating committees and master reviewers.

Published 29 August 2006 in J Fam Psychol, 20(3): 397-408.
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