Intrafamily violence: Brazilian adaptation and psychometric evidence of the Children’s Natural Environment Signaling Scale

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to adapt the Children’s Natural Environment Signaling Scale to the Brazilian context, gathering evidence of validity and precision. Specifically, it sought to verify the presence of violent behavior in the adolescents’ family environment and to identify the victims of this type of violence. A total of 249 adolescents, between 13 and 19 years old, participated this study. The results pointed to the existence of few situations of intrafamily violence, with the most frequent victims being children and adolescents. As for the instrument, the confirmatory factor analysis revealed adequate adjustment indexes, confirming the original model of the scale, composed of four factors: physical abuse, emotional abuse, coercion, and control. The reliability, assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega coefficients, showed similar satisfactory indicators ranging from 0.69 to 0.81. The importance of having a psychometrically robust instrument is highlighted, making it possible to assess intrafamily violence in the Brazilian context.

Keywords

• Child abuse
• Family
• Validation study