Psychometric testing of the Chinese version of ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools Children's Home Version (ICAST-CH-C)

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.10.020

Children and Youth Services Review

Volume 35, Issue 12, December 2013, Pages 2135-2139

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.10.020 Get rights and content

Highlights

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The ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools (ICAST) measure child abuse across cultures.
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The ICAST Children's Home version in Chinese (ICAST-CH-C) was established and tested.
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The ICAST-CH-C achieves content, meaning and culture equivalence with the ICAST-CH.
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The ICAST-CH-C has satisfactory psychometric properties with an adolescent population.

Abstract

Background

Child maltreatment is a global problem and the true extent remains unknown. The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Child Abuse Screening Tool — Children's Home version (ICAST-CH) has provided accurate assessment of the scope and prevalence of child maltreatment. Yet measures of children's experiences of child maltreatment are limited in the Chinese population.

Objectives

The study aimed to translate and validate a Chinese version of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool — Children's Home version (ICAST-CH) and to evaluate its reliability and validity among Taiwan adolescents.

Methods

A three phase study was conducted. In phase 1, the ICAST was translated into Chinese using forward–backward translation procedures with the translation equivalence and content validity assessed. In phase 2, the data provided by a convenience sample of 98 adolescents was used to assess the internal consistency of the ICAST-CH Chinese version (ICAST-CH-C). In phase 3, the psychometric properties of the ICAST-CH-C were tested with a nationwide random sample of 5236 adolescents from 35 schools.

Results

The translation equivalence and content validity index of the ICAST-CH-C was satisfactory. The inter-rater agreements were .90–.91 for comparability of language and .89–.94 for similarity of interpretability. Results indicated that the ICAST-CH-C had a high level of equivalence with the original English version and demonstrated a high internal consistency (.71–.89). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed the presence of five factors supporting the conceptual dimension of the original instrument.

Conclusion

This study provided initial psychometric properties of the ICAST-CH-C and supports it as a reliable, valid, and highly usable instrument to identify childhood victimization in adolescents. It provided health care professionals with a useful tool to assess the severity and prevalence of child maltreatment within Chinese communities.

Introduction

The definition and clinical manifestations of child maltreatment is diverse and complex. The estimation of the number of child maltreatment victims varies with the World Health Organization (WHO) indicating that 25–50% of children suffer from physical abuse (WHO, 2006) while others report that 12.7% of children suffer from sexual abuse (Stoltenborgh, van IJzendoorn, Euser, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2011). However, the true extent of child maltreatment remains unknown partly due to varying definitions and diverse data collection methods (Fallon et al., 2010, Manly, 2005). The measurement of child maltreatment poses a challenge for researchers due to the complexity, definitions, and sensitivity of child maltreatment (Fallon et al., 2010, McGee et al., 1995).

The incidence of child maltreatment has been most frequently estimated using retrospective self-report or proxy-reporting questionnaires (Finkelhor et al., 2005, Tonmyr et al., 2011). While the recall bias of using retrospective data has been one major concern in the area of child maltreatment research, Fergusson, Horwood, and Boden (2011) argued that only very small proportion of reported variance was accounted by recall bias and the larger error variances were due to unreliability of measurement error. The use of parental report to inquire the possibility of parental perpetrators (i.e., Child Abuse Potential Inventory) (Milner, 1989, Parker et al., 1979) is commonly used because of the young age of children, but risks for social desirability and faking good. Existing instruments to measure child maltreatment are limited in the scope of abuse measured and fail to consider abuse severity (English et al., 2005). The scope of the instruments is often limited to physical or sexual abuse, and lacks information on exposure to violence, psychological abuse, and neglect.

A well-designed, cross-cultural, multi-dimensional, psychometrically sound instrument is a prerequisite for international comparisons and knowledge development in child maltreatment research. The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) has developed the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool (ICAST) using a Delphi study of 40 experts from 31 countries (Runyan et al., 2009). The ICAST is a population-based survey tool with a comprehensive coverage of childhood victimization types across cultures and is available in 7 languages (English, Arabic, Hindi, Malay, Marathi, Russian and Spanish).

Direct inquiry of one's recent experiences is assumed to reduce the bias from recall or the use of a proxy with the gathered information closer to the real situation. To remove any bias associated with caregiver reports, the ICAST-CH (Children's Home Version), a pencil-and-pen survey, is designed for children aged 11–18 years to describe their mistreated experiences at home (Runyan et al., 2009). The internal consistencies of the ICAST-CH have ranged from .69 to .83 for 571 children from Columbia, Iceland, India and Russia. Zolotor et al. (2009) confirmed that the ICAST-CH items were well-designed with minimal ambiguity and easily understood for children aged 11–18.

A Chinese version of the ICAST-CH provides an opportunity to systematically examine the phenomenon of child maltreatment in Chinese communities such as Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to translate ICAST-CH into Chinese (ICAST-CH-C) and to test the cultural and linguistic equivalence of the ICAST-CH-C and establish its psychometric properties.

Section snippets

Design

Translating and establishing the psychometric properties of the ICAST-CH Chinese version (ICAST-CH-C) was conducted in three phases. Permission to translate the ICAST-CH from the ISPCAN was obtained. A 5-step modified back translation procedure (Jones et al., 2001, Wang et al., 2006) was used to translate the English version of the ICAST-CH into Chinese (Fig. 1). In phase 1, two monolingual and two bilingual experts were invited to examine translation equivalence. In phase 2, internal

Translation equivalence test

Translation equivalence testing resulted in inter-rater agreements between the two monolingual speakers of .90–.91 for comparability of language and .89–.94 for similarity of meaning. In language comparability, 98.6% of the scores were above 4 indicating that the wordings of the items and instructions were comparable. Only one instruction statement scored less than 4. The mean language comparability scores were 5.9 for both back-translated versions. For similarity of meaning 97.2% of the scores

Discussion

The results of this study suggest that the ICAST-CH-C is a valid and reliable instrument to measure children's experience of violence at home. This is the first study to validate a cross-cultural, multidimensional instrument designed to measure children's self-reports of maltreatment using a population-based sample of adolescents in Taiwan.

The readability of the ICAST-CH-C items was appropriate for children in Taiwan. The equivalence tests on the content and language of the ICAST-CH-C and

Conclusion

A rigorous back translation process was undertaken to ensure the translation equivalence between the ICAST-CH and ICAST-CH-C. Item analyses determined the appropriateness of each item with comparable internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis established construct validity. The ICAST-CH Chinese version provides a valid, reliable, and highly usable measure for identifying childhood victimization and is an appropriate tool to assess the severity and prevalence of child maltreatment in

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the help of the students for responding the questionnaires and the teachers who supported to monitor the process of delivering and testing the questionnaires. The authors also acknowledge the contributions of Min-Ju Chen, Kan-Ju Li, Yu-Ting Lin, and Shih-Han Huang, who participated in the back translation and data collection processes, and Susan Fetzer, whose comments were helpful in improving this work.

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Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a substantial public health issue that is challenging to measure epidemiologically due to the “pact of silence” among those involved. Validated tools could contribute to early recognition or risk detection for CSA. We aimed to systematically assess self-report tools’ measurement properties and methodological quality that detect risk or exposure to CSA for children under twelve. The search strategy, selection criteria, data extraction, data analysis, and synthesis followed the COSMIN methodology for systematic reviews (2018). PROSPERO 2021 registration CRD42021278465. MEDLINE, COCHRANE, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and ERIC were searched until August 2021, with an updated search on September 23, 2021, and unlimited by language. The inclusion criteria were: to assess risk or exposure to CSA under twelve years old by objective items and self-report tools; sexual violence risk or exposure in the domestic context; the application context should include health facilities (such as hospital emergency rooms, outpatient clinics, pediatric wards, psychology centers, social services), education (such as schools) and community; no language or date restriction. The exclusion criteria were: non-self-report tools studies, comprehensive articles, comments, editorials, expert opinions, and studies of projective techniques. The COSMIN risk of bias checklist was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies. Feasibility aspects were assessed. This study had no funding source; 29 studies describing eight tools met eligibility criteria. No single instrument reported all nine measurement properties outlined by the COSMIN methodology. The strength of the evidence was moderate to high for six out of eight instruments. ICAST-C and JVQ were the tools that obtained the highest number of rated measurement properties and strength of evidence.
ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool for Children (ICAST-C): Translation and adaptation to Mexican Spanish, and psychometric properties tested in Mexico City adolescents
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The confirmatory factor analysis of this Mexican Spanish version is the first one to corroborate the six dimensions of the V3 adding the non-violent discipline to the original scale (Zolotor et al., 2009). This supports the construct validity of the scale, and adds to the accumulating evidence of its validity in other cultures (Chandraratne et al., 2018; Chang et al., 2013; Meinck et al., 2018; Meinck et al., 2020; Zolotor et al., 2009). It is important to note that in the analysis with the 62 original items (V3) there was a lack of global fit in one of the four proposed indices (CFI = 0.93).
Research using the IPSCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool for Children (ICAST-C), has provided ample evidence of the magnitude of violence against children. Knowledge about its psychometric characteristics and validity is limited. Hence, our objective was to translate and culturally adapt the ICAST-C in adolescents from Mexico City and determine its psychometric properties.
To determine the psychometric properties of the instrument 723 adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age from 9 public secondary schools in Mexico City participated.
The study was carried out in two phases: 1) translation and adaptation of the instrument (in 5 steps) and 2) pilot evaluation of the psychometric properties. Total and factor reliabilities were determined, Pearson correlation was used for temporal stability while construct validity was determined by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and final adequacy of the items eliminated by the CFA.
We developed the culturally relevant Mexican Spanish version of the ICAST-C. The CFA confirmed the six-factor structure hypothesis. To improve the original model we eliminated ten items, the final model showed good global fit indices (χ2(1310) = 2207.68, p < .01, χ2/df = 1.68; CFI =0.95; RMSEA = 0.02 [CI95% 0.02–0.03]; SRMR = 0.08). Total and factor reliabilities were adequate (Alpha = 0.79–0.92, r = 0.52–0.75), except for the non-violent discipline factor (Alpha = 0.59, r = 0.38).
While these data suggest that this version of the ICAST-C is valid and reliable for adolescents in Mexico City public secondary schools, further research should evaluate the psychometric properties in a national sample.
A psychometric analysis of a short form of the Chinese version of the ISPCAN child abuse screening tools – Children's home version (SC-ICAST-CH) using multidimensional item response theory
2020, Child Abuse and Neglect
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Almost 10 % of the participants were indigenous. For a more detailed explanation of the sampling procedure and sample characteristics, please refer to Chang et al. (2013) and Feng, Chang, Chang, Fetzer, and Wang (2015). The ICAST-CH-C was used to collect the adolescents’ childhood maltreatment experiences at home during the previous year and over their lifetimes in Chang et al. (2013).
The development of measures of child maltreatment for the Chinese population were limited until the Chinese version of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools – Children’s Home version (ICAST-CH-C) was proposed. Although the ICAST-CH-C was found to be effective in assessing the scope and prevalence of child maltreatment, it has several potential drawbacks. The time that is required to complete the ICAST-CH-C scale is longer than usual for a 36-item scale, because many of its items have one or more follow-up questions. Moreover, each item requires child victims to recall unpleasant experiences. Both phenomena can cause increases in invalid responses and in turn damage the data quality.
The goal of this study was to propose a short form of the ICAST-CH-C (called the SC-ICAST-CH) to reduce the test length and response time in order to improve the measurement quality.
A dataset from a national survey of 5236 adolescents in Taiwan was used.
A multidimensional version of the rating scale model (MRSM) was fitted to the data. The model parameters were estimated with the ConQuest software.
The results indicated the reliability of the SC-ICAST-CH was fairly good, with only 61 % of the original test length. Disordered thresholds were found in all five subscales; the underlying reasons for this phenomenon need further investigation. Specific cultural differences related to item retention/removal decisions were also discussed.
The efficient, shorter SC-ICAST-CH was shown to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the prevalence of child maltreatment.
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2020, Child Abuse and Neglect
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A few studies have investigated the psychometric properties of the ICAST-C Version 1 and found adequate criterion validity and internal consistency in a Chinese translation. Construct validity was adequate for a five-factor solution with the dimensions physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and exposure to violence/witnessing violence (Chang, Lin, Chang, Tsai, & Feng, 2013). The original pilot study across eight countries found that internal reliability was adequate for most subscale except for witnessing violence (Zolotor et al., 2009).
Violence against children is a global public health concern. Researchers are increasingly using self-report measures of physical, psychological, and sexual violence and neglect for population-based surveys. The current gold-standard measure, the 45-item ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool has been used across the world. This study assesses its adequacy for measuring abuse across countries.
Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the configural, metric and scalar invariance of the measure across nine Balkan countries. Data were collected using a three-stage stratified random sampling frame of 42,194 school-attending children in three grades (aged 11,13 and 16 years) from schools in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey. Children completed the ICAST-C, which measures children’s exposure to physical, psychological, and sexual violence, neglect and witnessing household violence in the past year and across the lifespan.
The analyses show partial scalar invariance for the ICAST-C constructs children’s exposure to physical and psychological violence, neglect and witnessing household violence across the nine countries and partial scalar invariance for the constructs of children’s exposure to physical, psychological and sexual violence, neglect and witnessing household violence across eight countries (Turkey did not measure sexual violence).
The ICAST-C can be used to validly compare levels of physical, psychological, and sexual violence, neglect and witnessing violence in school-aged children across countries. It can also be used to validly compare the relations between these forms of violence and their covariates, predictors, and outcomes across countries.
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2019, Child Abuse and Neglect
Child maltreatment has been found to significantly increase the risk of deviant behavior. Academic performance has been shown to have an indirect effect on the relationship between child maltreatment and deviant behavior. However, not all adolescents who have been maltreated engage in deviant behavior, so the relationship between child maltreatment and deviant behavior has remained unclear.
The aim of this research was to examine the potential mediating and/or moderating effects of academic performance on the relationship between child maltreatment and deviant behavior.
The data in this study were from a nationwide study examining the consequences of childhood maltreatment in Taiwan. The database consisted of data from 2321 adolescents.
A secondary data analysis was conducted. Self-report data were obtained on childhood maltreatment experiences, academic performance, and deviant behaviors. Path analyses and a generalized linear model were used to examine the effects of academic performance on the relationship between child maltreatment and deviant behavior.
Most participants were male (61.4%), with a mean age of 15.9 years. The mean scores of self-rated academic performance and deviant behavior were 2.86 and 8.2, respectively. A total of 83% participants reported having experienced childhood maltreatment. In this study, academic performance was found to have a moderating rather than a mediating effect on the relationship between child maltreatment and deviant behavior. Among adolescents who had been maltreated during childhood, those who self-rated poorer academic performance were more likely to have a higher deviant behavior score than those who self-rated better academic performance.
Good academic performance can be a buffer that reduces the risk of deviant behavior among individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment. Healthcare professionals and educators can tailor early prevention and intervention educational programs targeted toward adolescents with experience of childhood abuse or poor academic performance to prevent the incidence of deviant behavior and thus break the cycle of violence.
Cultural adaptation, translation and validation of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool – Retrospective Version (ICAST-R) for young adults in Sri Lanka
2018, Child Abuse and Neglect
The aim of the present study was to adapt and validate the ISPCAN child abuse screening tool-retrospective version (ICAST-R) in Sri Lanka with a view to investigating the experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during childhood.
The adaptation was performed using qualitative research methods with young adults, parents, teachers, and a multidisciplinary group of experts. The translation to Sinhala (the local Sri Lankan dialect) was carried out by a nominal group technique. A multidisciplinary team of experts assessed the Sinhala ICAST-R (SICAST-R) for its content validity. Moreover, acceptability, reliability and construct validity were determined by conducting a validation study among 200 schooling young adults. The principal component analysis (PCA) technique was used to assess the construct validity. Response rates for each item were taken as evidence of acceptability. The internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha, and test-retest reliability after two weeks was assessed using Cohen's kappa coefficient.
The adaptation of ICAST-R included the introduction of an objective manner by which to measure severity of abuse and the inclusion of a set of questions regarding help-seeking behavior following physical and emotional abusive experiences.
The SICAST-R showed adequate content validity and high acceptability, with response rates ranging from 90.3% to 99.5%. The minimum Cohen’s kappa coefficient was 0.76, indicating good test-retest reliability. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) for the total tool was 0.708, with the three constructs being 0.398, 0.844 and 0.637 for physical, sexual and emotional abuse, respectively. The PCA demonstrated good reproducibility for sexual and emotional abuse with the hypothesized structure.
Overall, the SICAST-R showed adequate validity for the assessment of experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during childhood among Sri Lankan young adults.

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^☆: Financial support: Taiwan National Science Council; contract grant number: NSC101-2314-B-006-062-MY3.

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Psychometric testing of the Chinese version of ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools Children's Home Version (ICAST-CH-C)☆

Highlights

Abstract

Background

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Introduction

Section snippets

Design

Translation equivalence test

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

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Students' personal traits, violence exposure, family factors, school dynamics and the perpetration of violence in Taiwanese elementary schools

Health Education Research