CONSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT OF A SCALE TO MEASURE RISKY RELATIONSHIPSBETWEEN MOTHERS AND NEWBORNS

The purpose of this work was to construct and assess a scale aimed to detect risky relationships between mothers and newborns that could pre dict future child abuse and neglect. The instrument was applied in two opportunities, by a trained midwife and by an expert in mental health , to a sample of 106 mother-newborn dyads. When both assessments were compared, the concordance to assess relationship risk was 99.3%. The r eliability of the scale, measured with the Crombach, a internal consis tence index, was 0.88. Those items with a low discriminative capacity were eliminated. The massive use of the resultant scale, that is easy to apply and highly reliable, could help to prevent child abuse and ne glect.