The Structured Interview of Family Assessment Risk: Convergent Validity, Inter-rater Reliability and Structural Relations

Diamantino José Figueiredo Dos Santos,Isabel Maria Marques Alberto,Catarina Maria Valente Antunes Marques

doi:10.1007/s10560-016-0444-6

Diamantino José Figueiredo Dos Santos, Isabel Maria Marques Alberto + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-016-0444-6

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Abstract

The quality of parenting, composition and socio-economic status are family risk or protective factors on juvenile delinquency, however, there is not an instrument to help psychologists and social workers to specifically assess the adolescent offender’s family. This study set out to accomplish an additional validation study of the structured interview of family assessment risk (SIFAR), a structured professional judgment tool for the assessment of family risk and protective factors of juvenile delinquents. The statistical analyses included inter-rater reliability, convergent validity with YLS/CMI, the Partial Least Squares approach to structural equation modeling and receiving operator characteristics (ROC) analysis. A sample of 130 male adolescent delinquents detained in Portuguese forensic facilities and their parents, were paired analyzed. The YLS/CMI was used to analyze the convergent validity with SIFAR. SIFAR shows a strong correlation with the YLS/CMI family context, moderate to high values of inter-rater reliability; SIFAR factors show that they are predictive determinants of the Moderate Four risk factors. ROC analysis shows adequate accuracy power. The findings show that SIFAR it is useful as an additional assessment tool for structured risk assessment instruments since it allows understanding the vulnerabilities and strengths of the delinquent’s family.

Highlights

In the last 20 years, fundamental concepts were clarified and many risk assessment tools were produced
This paper describes a research which had as a goal to accomplish the complementary validation studies of the Structured Interview of Family Assessment Risk, a structured professional judgment tool for the assessment of family risk and protective factors of juvenile delinquents
The actual fourth generation tools are established in static, dynamic, risk management and protective factors, being case management oriented, in a integrative methodology that allows the formulation of different risk levels, based in the principles of risk, criminogenic needs, the assessment of special responsivity factors and personal strengths, organizing the case monitoring in all intervention process (Andrews & Bonta, 2010; Heilbrun et al, 2010, McGuire, 2004)

Summary

Introduction

In the last 20 years, fundamental concepts were clarified and many risk assessment tools were produced. The most relevant clarification it is the concept of risk factor, defined as the characteristics of people and their circumstances which are associated with an increased chance of future violence involvement or re-ofending (Andrews & Bonta, 2010; Loeber, Farrington, Stouthamer-Loeber, & White, 2008) These factors can be static - the individual and historical events not changeable, dynamic - the changeable personal and interpersonal events and risk management - the conditions of the living environment (Andrews & Bonta, 2010; Heilbrun, Yosuhara, & Shah, 2010). The SPJ approach uses checklists of risk factors to analyze static, dynamic risk and management factors, in a integrative framework to perform a risk level to a specific person in their specific conditions (de Vogel et al, 2011; Robbé, de Vogel, & Spa, 2011)

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