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

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.