The internal consistency of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory with adolescent mothers

In this study, 105 adolescents completed the Child Abuse Potential Inventor y (CAP) at an average of 2 months postpartum. The purpose was to assess the reliability (internal consistency) of the CAP with adolescent mothers. The second purpose was to begin to establish a line of inquiry that examines t he value of using the CAP with this population. The results showed chat the alpha reliabilities were low for the CAP abuse scale (0.65) and low to mod erate for its six subscales (range 0.59-0.74). The conclusion was drawn tha t further research is needed to understand the psychometric properties of t he CAP with adolescent mothers. (C) 2000 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.