Validating the assessment of Communication in Parenting Scale (COMPA) with a sample of parents and children flagged for parental abuse and negligence / Clotilde Alves Nunes Agostinho, Isabel Maria Marques Alberto, and José Tomás da Silva.

Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract : Objectives: This study aims to validate the three versions of the Assessment of Communication in Parenting Scale (Avaliação da Comunicação na Parentalidade—COMPA), namely the parental, the child version (7 - 11 years old) and the adolescent version (12 - 16 years old), in a sample of subjects involved in a forensic context. Method: The study was conducted with a sample of parents (53 mothers, 26 fathers), children, and adolescents (41 males and 42 females) who had been identified as being at risk of neglect and/or parental abuse within the scope of existing promotion and protection processes at the Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People (Comissões de Proteção de Crianças e Jovens—CPCJ). Results: The results demonstrated good psychometric properties with regard to internal consistency for the three versions of the COMPA with the exception of the COMPA-A Negative Communication Pattern subscale in relation to the mother. The results of the divergent validity analysis indicate that the COMPA assesses distinct constructs from the EMBU. Conclusions: The three versions of COMPA represent a reliable resource for the evaluation of parent-child communication patterns in contexts where abuse or neglect is suspected or has already occurred.