Measurement invariance of caregiver support following sexual abuse across age, relationship, and English-Spanish language.

BACKGROUND

The Maternal Self-report Support Questionnaire (MSSQ) is among the most rigorously evaluated measures of caregiver support following child sexual abuse, but there is a paucity of data on the factor structure and variance of the MSSQ across diverse groups of caregivers and their children.

OBJECTIVE

The present study examined the factor structure and measurement invariance of the MSSQ across 386 non-offending caregivers following a disclosure of child sexual abuse.

PARTICIPANTS AND

SETTING

Data were collected from non-offending caregivers at two Child Advocacy Centers (n = 277; n = 109) in the United States.

METHODS

Caregivers completed the MSSQ and assessments of child age, caregiver-child relationship, and caregiver preferred language.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analyses replicated the original two-factor structure, with the emotional support and blame/doubt subscales emerging as distinct factors. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses showed measurement invariance across child age and caregiver-child relationship (mother vs. another caregiver). Evidence of partial invariance was found for caregiver preferred language. Comparisons of scores indicated caregiver support varied by child age and caregiver preferred language.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, findings suggest the MSSQ can be used to measure caregiver support across caregivers with children of different ages and both mothers and non-mothers, but caution should be practiced in interpreting mean-level differences between English- and Spanish-speaking caregivers.