A critical review of child maltreatment indices: psychometric properties and application in the South African context

Abstract

The public and academic focus on child maltreatment and neglect and their prevention has spawned a range of surveillance instruments and mechanisms intended to identify child maltreatment and measure its magnitude. While such surveillance responses are obviously important for the prevention and management of child maltreatment and neglect, there appears to have been insufficient attention directed at examining their utility in the South Africa context. A review hereof is likely to offer insights to programme planners and child safety advocates working to mobilise political and community-level actions. Accordingly, the paper considers a sample of child maltreatment scales and measures and critically evaluates them in terms of their psychometric properties, as well as their application value for South Africa. Review findings indicate that despite an obvious lack of evaluative standards for assessing the psychometric properties of child maltreatment measures, those considered in this review appear to perform well with the study populations and in cross-cultural applications. It is suggested that following an appraisal of their linguistic and cultural appropriateness, and the adoption of suitable piloting procedures, the identified scales could be applied in South Africa with confidence in their measurement capabilities.

Keywords: review, child maltreatment and neglect, indices, cross-cultural application, South Africa