ISPCAN child abuse Screening Tool- parent version (ICAST-P)
The ICAST-P questionnaire was adopted to measure the extent of physical, psychological maltreatment and neglect. It measures disciplinary maltreatment practices directed at children [
36]. The ICAST-P was found adequate to assess child maltreatment at work and at home [
37]. This tool is found validated and reliable (Cronbach alpha: 0.60–0.87) in cultural contexts of South Asian countries [
38,
39]. Children’s maltreatment experiences were measured by sixteen physical maltreatment items, eight psychological items, and three neglect items. Items of both physical and psychological maltreatment included six response categories for the past year prevalence of child maltreatment including never, yes but not in the past year, once or twice, 3 to 5 times, 6 to 10 times, and ≥ 10 times and weighted values were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively. A mean score was calculated for each form of maltreatment. The mean score ranged from between 0 and 6 for each module of maltreatment [
36].
Paediatric symptom checklist (PSC)
Typically, standardized instruments are used to estimate psycho-social problems among victimized children worldwide. Mental health professionals use a number of clinically validated tools for screening and diagnosing psychological disorders. However, most of the existing measurement tools are not conducive to apply in all paediatric settings as these are time-consuming, lack standardized norms, require professional training to administer [
14,
40]. Additionally, the younger children may not possess sufficient cognitive understanding to comprehend some psycho-matric items [
14]. In contrast to these measurement tools, PSC is found as widely used screening inventory, which is easy to administer as only 5 min take to complete scoring and is simple to interpret [
40‐
42]. It provides opportunity to capture the parents’ impressions of their children’s psycho-social conditions [
40]. It has been validated for use in clinical, educational, and public health, low-income and minority settings [
40,
43]. This tool has been identified as a reliable screening measure (Cronbach alpha: 0.86) for assessing children’s psychosocial problems [
44]. In this study, the PSC tool captured the parents’ recognition of the cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems associated with child maltreatment. A total of 35 items were listed in PSC with response items weighted as 0, 1 and 2 for Never, Sometimes and Often [
45]. The range of possible scores is between 0 and 70 points, which were calculated by adding the individual values for each item. The threshold score of 28 or above indicates psychological impairment in child laborers [
42].
For comparison, the English questionnaire, which included both the ICAST-P and PSC (Parents’ version) tools, was translated into Bangla and back-translated. In the first stage, three academics with expertise in socio-epidemiology and health science research, including one paediatrician with a doctorate and one biostatistician with a doctorate, as well as one registered nurse with a doctorate, translated the English versions of the ICAST tools and PSC tools into Bangla.
Two academics were knowledgeable about the scales, their terminologies, as well as the theoretical construction of the questionnaire. One academic (academic and paediatrician) was familiar with child health related terminologies. He knew colloquial phrases, idioms, and idiomatic expressions in English. In collaboration with the academic experts, we translated the original English version of questionnaires into Bangla.
Two additional academic experts (who were also registered nurses with PhD degrees and experienced in scale validation) reviewed the transcription process with the authors of the study and resolved concerns. In a consensus meeting composed of all the experts (translators) and authors of the study, we analysed and discussed discrepancies in words, meaning, or phrases, and resolved them. As a result, we were able to develop Bangla versions of all questionnaires. Additionally, the Bengali version of the questionnaire was tested on three parents of child laborers to determine whether it was understandable for parents with low literacy levels. We found the translated versions were comprehensible.
In the second stage, an academic expert (Biostatistician), whose native language is Bangla and English is a second language, and one registered nurse with a PhD degree, whose first language is English, but who can also speak Bangla performed a back-translation of the translated Bangla scales into English. Both translators were experienced in international translation. These translated versions were combined to produce one single translated version for each scale. Additionally, we consulted with an academic with expertise in child protection research, whose native language is English and Bangla is a second language, in order to compare and evaluate the translated versions in terms of similarities and conceptual equivalence compared to the original English version and the first Bangla translation. As a result, the Bangla versions of the scales were back translated into English.