A follow-up study on primary prevention of child abuse [electronic resource] : the development of the Children's Parenting Inventory (CPI) to identify high-risk parenting attitudes among at-risk middle school children /

by Kopp, Mindee.

The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awake. The further back in history one goes, the lower the level of child care and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized, and abused (De Mause, 1974). Authored by Schlieve in 2000, the Children S Parenting Inventory (CPI), an inventory designed to assess parenting attitudes and child-rearing practices of middle school children, was utilized as a follow-up study. Responses to the Children 's Parenting Inventory could provide an index of risk for practicing abusive parenting behaviors known to contribute to child abuse and neglect. The first field test of the Children S Parenting Inventory in 2000 consisted of 137 items based on five constructs identified by Bavolek and Keene's (1999) Adult- Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2: (A) inappropriate parental expectations of children, (B) parental lack of an empathetic awareness of children's needs, (C) strong belief in use and value of corporal punishment, (D) parent-child role reversal, and (E) oppressing children's power and independence. A study completed by Schlieve in 2000 revised the five constructs to three constructs: A-Empathy, B-Role Reversal, and C-Role Expectations. This study analyzed the responses through the three Constructs identified by Schlieve's final study in 2000. Subjects for the current study included at-risk students ages 10 to 14 years old in three western Wisconsin schools. The results were measured to determine the inventory's consistency with Schlieve's findings. This study concluded that in all three Constructs, responses were consistent with Schlieve's findings in 2000 - thus concluding that the CPI could begin to provide an indicator of risk for abusive parenting behavior in the middle school population.