Rates of reported child maltreatment have been increasing across Canada. This increase has brought attention to the critical importance of reliable and valid risk assessment tools that can ensure that treatment resources target the most high-risk children. Although increasingly sophisticated methods for testing and refining child abuse risk-assessment tools are being developed, large scale validation studies have not kept pace with the growing use of these instruments.
The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a risk assessment tool in Canada. The research used a mixed-methods approach with four objectives:
- To determine inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of the risk assessment tool;
- To determine the predictive validity of the risk assessment tool;
- To explore the impact of the risk assessment tool on social work practice, as assessed by front-line child protection workers.
听
Full Report
Barber, J., Trocm茅, N., Goodman, D., Shlonsky, A., Black, T., & Leslie, B. (2007). The Reliability and Predictive Validity of Consensus-Based Risk Assessment Toronto, ON: Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare, 34 pages.
听
For more information, please contact aron.shlonsky [at] utoronto.ca (Aron Shlonsky)