THE CHILDRENS ATTRIBUTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS SCALE - A NEW MEASURE OF SEXUAL ABUSE-RELATED FACTORS

Presented the Children's Attributions and Perceptions Scale (CAPS), a new measure of sexual abuse-related factors in victimized children. This instrument consists of four subscales: Feeling Different From Peers, Personal Attributions for Negative Events, Perceived Credibility, and Interpersonal Trust. The CAPS was administered to 40 sexually abused and 40 normal controls between the ages of 7 and 12. Findings demonstrated that the sexually abused group scored significantly higher than normal controls on the total CAPS and three of its subscales. In addition, there were significant correlations between the CAPS and self-report symptom measures only in the sexually abused group. There were few significant correlations between the CAPS and parent ratings of symptomatology. Results are discussed in the context of the evolving literature on abuse-related assessment instruments in the study of child sexual abuse.