Validation and Predictive Ability of the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale for the Intensive In-Home Visitation Program in Kentucky

Journal of Social Research & Policy, Volume: 5, Issue: 2, pp. 5-21

Date: December 2014

ISSN: 2067-2640 (print), 2068-9861 (electronic)

Abstract: The Community Collaboration for Children (CCC) program is a complex initiative implemented in Kentucky by a

network of state and non-governmental agencies that provide intensive in-home services to families at risk for child

abuse and neglect. The primary focus of this program is to maintain children who are at risk of being removed from

their family, in their own homes while supporting and building family strengths in areas such as safety, stability, and

interaction skills. The program’s evaluation research design is longitudinal, data was collected quarterly by the

services providers, social and child workers. This paper focuses on the validation of the North Carolina Family

Assessment Scale (NCFAS), using the intake data collected from 1959 families who participated in the CCC intensive

in-home services during July 1, 2006 through December 31, 2009. NCFAS is a practice tool utilized by service

providers to assess families on five domains: environment, child wellbeing, family interaction, family safety and family

capability as related to child wellbeing. The factors extracted using two approaches - general factor analysis and a

congeneric, single-factor analysis- were used to test the predictive ability of each subscale using logic regression

analyses, while controlling for the intensity of in-home visitation services. Both factor analysis approaches yielded

valid and reliable results. Of the five NCFAS domains, the family interaction was the strongest predictor of case

outcome, assuming that families are provided with 11 to 20 hours of services.

Keywords: Family functioning; Family safety; Child wellbeing; Family preservation; Family permanency; In-Home

visitation; Scale validation; Reliability.