Transcultural Adaptation and Validity Evidence of the Child Forensic Attitude Scale (CFAS) – Brazilian Version

Abstract

ABSTRACT Child sexual abuse is a serious problem in Brazil and requires actions taken together by Justice, Security, Health and Social Welfare to effectively protect and guarantee victims’ rights. Professionals working in these fields have difficulty in evaluating cases, owing to limitations of the Brazilian Welfare Network and lack of specialized training. Such difficulty may cause professionals to carry out poorly substantiated assessments and fail to properly protect victims. Instruments to measure professionals’ attitudes in the assessment of situations of sexual violence are scarce. As a result, this study aimed to adapt and evaluate validity evidence of the Child Forensic Attitude Scale (CFAS) in the Brazilian context. A total of 177 professionals (86.4% females), with a mean age of 37.6 years (SD = 10.1 years) participated in the survey. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that in the Brazilian context, the scale structure presents three first-order oblique factors, namely “Fear of Not Identifying Abuse” (F-Under), “Fear of Overcalling Abuse” (F-Over) and “Skepticism” (Skep). The internal consistency of the three dimensions was satisfactory (F-Under, α = 0.66, F-Over, α = 0.80, and Skep, α = 0.92). Evidence has shown that the CFAS can be used to evaluate health professionals’ attitudes when assessing cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents in Brazil. This instrument can support the assessment of health professionals’ attitudes, and it emphasizes the importance of qualifying Brazilian professionals in the Welfare Network services by providing training opportunities regarding work with victims of sexual abuse.