Adolescents and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Community Scale (ACRAM-CS)

Abstract

The Adolescents and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Community Scale (ACRAM-CS; Samper et al., 2023) was developed to enhance the ACRAM (Carbonell et al., 2023; Navarro-Pérez et al., 2023) as a comprehensive instrument for evaluating maltreatment risk in childhood and adolescence. This includes incorporating items related to community and institutional factors. Designed for Spanish-speaking individuals, the ACRAM-CS is an actuarial risk assessment inventory for completion by child welfare workers. The measure consists of 21 items that assess risk across six distinct community dimensions. Data were collected from a sample of child welfare workers. Following the exclusion of one item, factor analysis supported six dimensions. Results regarding reliability and validity were reported.

Keywords

Child Welfare Professionals; Healthcare Factors; Institutional Malpractice; Public Administration; School Setting; Socioeconomic; Structural Validity; Technical-Political Intervention; Child Abuse; Factorial Validity; Professional Liability; Risk Factors; School Environment; Social Workers; Risk Assessment; Socioeconomic Factors.

Authors

• Paula Samper

• Ángela Carbonell

• José M. Tomás

• Adrián García-Mollá

Purpose

The ACRAM-CS is an assessment tool designed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and practices developed to address child maltreatment within institutional settings.

Validity

Structural Validity: Results from the factor analysis support the factorial validity of the measure.

Nomological and Convergent Validity: The ACRAM-CS dimensions generally exhibit correlations in the expected direction, with the exception of a non-significant correlation between socioeconomic factors and healthcare and institutional malpractice factors. Furthermore, excluding the healthcare factor, the remaining ACRAM-CS dimensions show significant correlation coefficients with both the CTQ-SF (Bernstein et al., 2003) and C-CAPS dimensions (Ezzo & Young, 2012). Specifically, regarding the CTQ-SF, dimensions of emotional and physical neglect, and emotional abuse, are better related than other CTQ-SF dimensions. While sexual abuse had two significant (but low) correlations with ACRAM-CS dimensions, physical abuse showed no significant association with the analyzed scale.

Reliability

Internal consistency: Estimates of internal consistency for each factor were:

• Socioeconomic (CRI = .78)

• School setting (CRI = .85)

• Technical-political intervention (CRI = .95)

• Public administration (CRI = .74)

• Healthcare factors (CRI = .91)

• Institutional malpractice (CRI = .88)

Factor Analysis

Confirmatory Factor Analysis: The 6-factor model proposed during the theoretical development of the scale, excluding Item 14 of the institutional malpractice dimension, was tested. Fit indices for the total sample showed adequate fit of the model to the data: χ² = 286.78, df = 155, p < .001; CFI = .96; RMSEA = .04, 90% CI [.03, .04].

Instrument: Adolescents and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Community Scale (ACRAM-CS)

Test Type: Original

Format: Responses are recorded on a 3-point scale: 0 (there is clear evidence it does not occur), 1 (there are signs it might occur, but it cannot be confirmed), and 2 (there is clear evidence it does occur).

Language Available: Spanish

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older)

Population Details: Location: Spain. Respondents: Child Welfare Workers. Gender-Identity Reported: Nonbinary.

Test Methodology: Test Validity; Convergent Validity; Nomological Validity; Test Reliability; Internal Consistency; Factor Analysis; Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Authors Including

Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

Affiliation Email Addresses:

• Paula Samper: No data is Available

• Ángela Carbonell: No data is Available

• José M. Tomás: No data is Available

• Adrián García-Mollá: [email protected]

Correspondence Address:
García-Mollá, Adrián: University of Valencia, Department of Methodology for the Behavioral Sciences, Av. de Blasco Ibáñez 21, Valencia, Spain, 46010, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

References

Samper, P., Carbonell, Á., Tomás, J. M., & García-Mollá, A. (2023). Development and psychometric properties of the Adolescents and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Community Scale (ACRAM-CS). TPM-Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 30(3), 287–301.

Items of the Adolescents and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Community Scale (ACRAM-CS)

This is a 20-item measure.

Factors and Subscales:

• Socioeconomic (SE)

• School setting (SS)

• Technical-political intervention (TP)

• Public administration (PA)

• Healthcare factors (HC)

• Institutional malpractice (IM)

files: No file is available.