title: The Intervention Stressors Inventory: a measure of the stress of intervention for sexually abused children.
abstract: This paper describes the development and initial validation of the Intervention Stressors Inventory (ISI), a new scale designed to measure the level of stress sexually abused children experience as a result of societal intervention. Estimates of the relative stress level of various interventions were obtained from 98 professionals; a police interview was the designated anchor with a score of 50 points. Resulting scores from the survey included 35 points for social worker interview, 100 points for placement in foster care, and 111 points for testimony in criminal court. Factors that could potentially modify the stress of any given event were also considered. Interviews with 254 sexually abused children and their parents, 9 months after their cases were reported, provided an opportunity to examine the validity of the instrument. Weighted scores for each child were generated based on their experiences. Validity was supported by higher scores for older children, varying patterns of scores in different jurisdictions and a decline in scores over the one-year period in which jurisdictions were actively seeking to reduce the intrusiveness of intervention. Early results suggest that the ISI is useful as a research tool and as a guide in our efforts to reduce the trauma of intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine and Pediatrics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Runyan
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Everson
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Whitcomb
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Vos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003416:Criminal Law; D005260:Female; D005581:Foster Home Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012944:Social Support