Ap. Mannarino et al., THE CHILDRENS ATTRIBUTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS SCALE - A NEW MEASURE OF SEXUAL ABUSE-RELATED FACTORS, Journal of clinical child psychology, 23(2), 1994, pp. 204-211
Presented the Children's Attributions and Perceptions Scale (CAPS), a
new measure of sexual abuse-related factors in victimized children. Th
is instrument consists of four subscales: Feeling Different From Peers
, Personal Attributions for Negative Events, Perceived Credibility, an
d Interpersonal Trust. The CAPS was administered to 40 sexually abused
and 40 normal controls between the ages of 7 and 12. Findings demonst
rated that the sexually abused group scored significantly higher than
normal controls on the total CAPS and three of its subscales. In addit
ion, there were significant correlations between the CAPS and self-rep
ort symptom measures only in the sexually abused group. There were few
significant correlations between the CAPS and parent ratings of sympt
omatology. Results are discussed in the context of the evolving litera
ture on abuse-related assessment instruments in the study of child sex
ual abuse.