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

In this study, 105 adolescents completed the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (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 the value of using the CAP with this population. The results showed that the alpha reliabilities were low for the CAP abuse scale (0·65) and low to moderate for its six subscales (range 0·59–0·74). The conclusion was drawn that further research is needed to understand the psychometric properties of the CAP with adolescent mothers.