Pergamon Child Abuse ,~,:Neglcu't, Vol. 21, No. II, pp. 1067 1079. 1995' Copyright (0 1997 Elsexicr ¢,cicncc l,td Prinled in the USA. All righls reser,~ed 0145-2134/97 $17.00 ~ .00 PII S0145-2134(97)00066-5 CROSS-CULTURAL VALIDATION OF THE CHILD ABUSE POTENTIAL INVENTORY IN GREECE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY STAVROULA DIAREME California School of Professional Psychology. Fresno. CA. USA JOHN TSIANTIS Department of Psychological Pediatrics, "'Aghia Sophia" Children's Hospital, Athens, Greccc NTELLA TSITOURA Department of Pediatrics, "'Aghia Sophia" Childrcn's H~,spital. Athens, Greecc ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of this study was first, to provide preliminary lindings on the reliability and validity of a (h'eek translation of the CAP Inventory (Milner, 1986), and second, to examine whether there were any differences between Greek and American scores in the CAP Inventory. Method: A convenience sample of 320 Greek parents was recruited from the outpatient unit of a large Children's Hospital in Athens, Greece. Greek scores were compared with American scores taken frum the test manual. Results: Internal consistency reliability was high for the Abuse scale (.91), two factor scales (Distress .93 and Rigidity .86) and one Validity scale (Inconsistency = .80). The Greek version of the Abuse scale had a similar factorial structure with the American version. Also, 78.1% of Greek parents were classified correctly as nonabusive by the Abuse scale. This rate was increased to 88.6% when invalid questionnaires were excluded from the sample. Comparisons between Greek and American mean scale scores indicated that Greek scores were significantly higher than American scores m all but one scale. Greeks had significantly lower scores than Americans in the Problems with Child and Self scale. Conclusions: Current findings including the high reliability, relatively high correct classification rates and fetctorial structure of the Greek Abuse scale are promising and support the idea of continuation oI research [-k~r the development and validation of the Greek CAP Inventory. The difference between Greek and American scores in particular indicates thu need ftn adjustment of cut off scores in the Greek scale. © 1997 Elsevier Science Lid Key Words--Child physical abuse, Greek perpetrators. INTRODUCTION THE CHILD ABUSE Potential (CAP) Inventory is a screening questionnaire which was designed for the detection of parents at high risk lot child physical abuse. It consists of 160 items, 77 of which belong to the primary clinical scale--the Abuse scale. The score of the Abuse scale alone Received for publication August 28, 1995: final revision received April 1, 1997: accepted April 17, 1997. Reprint requests should be addressed to Dr. Stavmula Diareme, Association of the Psychosocial Health of Children and Adolescents (APHCA), 19 Aghiou Ioannou Theologou Street, 155 61 Holargos, Athens, Greece. 1067