Assessing child physical abuse: An examination of the factor structure and validity of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC)

Child maltreatment (CM) is associated with negative outcomes for young children across several areas of functioning. Given limitations in measuring different types of CM using substantiated abuse reports, other assessments may be helpful to inform identification and intervention efforts, such as self-report measures. The Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC) is a parent-report measure that provides information regarding the presence and severity of parenting behaviors related to CM subtypes, including physical and psychological abuse. The current study examines the factor structure of the CTSPC as well as its convergent validity with a behavioral observation measure, the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS). Pre-treatment archival data for 110 parent-child dyads with a substantiated physical abuse incident who were court-mandated to receive treatment as part of a larger study were used. Results demonstrated that a four-factor model best described the structure of the CTSPC, contrary to the theoretically-proposed structure of the measure. Reports on the CTSPC scales were also associated with several parent behaviors measured by the DPICS. Possible areas of improvement for the scale were provided. The current study has implications for further psychometric development of the CTSPC as well as its future use as a measure of parenting behaviors related to abuse.