The Child Well-Being Scales: a field trial.

Area of Science:

• Child psychology
• Social work research
• Program evaluation

Background:

• The Child Well-Being Scales were created to assess child welfare services.
• Previous validation of these scales was limited.
• Reliable measurement tools are crucial for effective child welfare program evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a segment of the Child Well-Being Scales for measuring child physical and psychological care.
• To assess the scales' ability to differentiate between neglectful and control families.
• To establish the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the selected scales.

Main Methods:

• Seventeen scales were extracted from the Child Well-Being Scales.
• Measures of physical and psychological care were developed.
• A field trial compared neglectful families with low-income control families.
• Factor analysis was used to examine scale structure.

Main Results:

• The composite indices demonstrated good internal consistency.
• Concurrent validity was supported by the comparison between neglectful and control groups.
• Three factors emerged that reliably classified families as neglectful or non-neglectful.
• Differences between neglectful and control families were in the predicted direction.

Conclusions:

• The validated segment of the Child Well-Being Scales provides a reliable measure of child care.
• The scales show promise for differentiating between neglectful and non-neglectful families.
• Further validation supports the use of these scales in child welfare program evaluation.