A Systematic Review on Evaluating Responsiveness of Parent- or Caregiver-Reported Child Maltreatment Measures for Interventions

Aims: Child maltreatment (CM) is a global public health and social problem, resulting in serious long-term health and socioeconomic consequences. As parents are the most common perpetrators of CM, parenting interventions are appropriate strategies to prevent CM. However, research on parenting interventions on CM has been hampered by lack of consensus on what measures are most responsive to detect a reduction in parental maltreating behaviours after parenting intervention. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the responsiveness of all current parent- or caregiver-reported CM measures. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in CINAHL, Embase, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed and Sociological Abstracts. The quality of studies and responsiveness of the measures were evaluated using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) guidelines for systematic reviews of patient-reported outcome measures. Only measures developed and published in English were included. Studies reporting data on responsiveness of the included measures were selected. Results: Sixty-nine articles reported on responsiveness of 15 identified measures. The study quality was overall adequate. The responsiveness of the measures was overall insufficient or not reported; high-quality evidence on responsiveness was limited. Conclusions: Only the Physical Abuse subscale of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool for use in Trials (ICAST-Trial) can be recommended as most responsive for use in parenting interventions, with high-quality evidence supporting sufficient responsiveness. All other overall scales or subscales of the 15 included measures were identified as promising based on current data on responsiveness. Additional psychometric evidence is required before they can be recommended.