Child sexual abuse prevention: Research review and recommendations

Berrick, Jill Duerr; Barth, Richard P.

doi:10.1093/swra/28.4.6

Cited by 61 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The literature has been fairly consistent in demonstrating that the children who participate in self-protection programmes show significant gains in knowledge and skills which may be helpful in avoiding sexual victimisation (Hébert et al, 2001;Wurtele et al, 1991Wurtele et al, , 1992aWurtele et al, , 1992bWurtele and Owens, 1997). Berrick and Barth (1992) conducted a meta-analysis of prevention programme research and found large effect sizes for school-age children. Children of all ages have demonstrated increased ability in identifying potentially abusive situations and differentiating between okay and not okay touches (Boyle and Lutzker, 2005;Hazzard et al, 1991;Sylvester, 1997;Wurtele, 1998;Wurtele et al, 1992b).…”

Section: Programme Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child sexual abuse: from prevention to self‐protection

et al. 2008

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There are a growing number of child abuse prevention and education programmes, including primarily group-based parent and child education, which are taught by teachers within the school system. This article reviews some of the existing sexual abuse education and/or body safety programmes, as well as the research surrounding them. Advantages as well as criticisms of such programmes are reviewed. Issues such as target populations (i.e. children, teachers, parents), programme components and methodological limitations are addressed. Major findings include: children as young as three can be effectively taught self-protection skills, parental and family involvement in training is important, and repeated exposure helps children maintain knowledge gains. The components of successful programmes include teaching children to identify and resist inappropriate touching, reassuring children that it is not their fault and learning the proper names of their genitals. Finally, future directions for programme development, research and policy are explored. (Runyon et al., 1998) or abuse-response skills (Deblinger and Runyon, 2000) may decrease the likelihood that children are abused by increasing their awareness, knowledge and comfort level with disclosing inappropriate sexual advances. Historically, the aim of prevention programmes has been to increase children's understanding of child sexual abuse (CSA), including definitions, prevalence and knowledge about potential perpetrators (Daro and Donnelly, 2002). Programmes have focused on skills that could be utilised in the instance of inappropriate sexual advances, and encouraged children to report past, current, or future occurrences of sexual abuse. It is notable that many of the articles reviewed here use the term prevention; however, we prefer the terms personal safety skills, abuse-response skills, or self-protection skills, which do not imply that the child is responsible for reducing the risk of CSA. Need for CSA EducationDespite alarming rates of CSA, not all parents discuss such potential dangers with their children. Most studies have found that about half of all parents discuss sexual abuse with their preschool children, but most do not use any supplementary materials such as books or videos (Tutty, 1997;Wurtele et al., 1992c). Those parents who did discuss CSA with their children were likely to be more educated and had more personal involvement with CSA (i.e. knew a victim of CSA or were one themselves) than those parents who did not discuss CSA with their children (Wurtele et al., 1992c;Deblinger et al., 2007). Discussion of sexual abuse should come in the form of education about healthy sexuality for children. Just as it is important for parents to teach their children about traffic and fire safety, it is equally important for them to teach their children about personal safety. These discussions should be adapted to the developmental and cognitive level of the child and incorporated into other discussions about staying safe. Studies suggest that the majority of parents ...

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Section: Programme Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child sexual abuse: from prevention to self‐protection

et al. 2008

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“…Studies have also analysed the social support perceived by the victims (Golding, Wilsnack, & Cooper, 2002), the types of therapy offered to them (De Jong & Gorey, 1996;Hetzel-Riggin, Brausch, & Montgomery, 2007;Peleikis & Dahl, 2005;Reeker, Ensing, & Elliot, 1997), the techniques used to assess sexual abuse (West, 1998), and the effectiveness of prevention programmes (Berrick & Barth, 1992;Davis & Gidycz, 2000;Rispens, Aleman, & Goudena, 1997). However, to date no research has sought to integrate the results obtained from epidemiological reviews from a meta-analytic perspective, addressing those variables which could be modulating the prevalence of child sexual abuse.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: A meta-analysis

Pereda

Guilera

Forns

et al. 2009

Clinical Psychology Review

850

451

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“…All prior reviews found medium to large effects for knowledge outcomes in favor of intervention groups. These effect sizes ranged from 0.57 (18 studies; Heidotting et al, 1994) through 0.71 (16 studies; Rispens et al, 1997) and 0.90 (13 studies;Berrick & Barth, 1992) to 1.07 (27 studies; Davis & Gidycz, 2000). Our original review (Zwi et al, 2007) found an SMD of 0.59 (95% CI ¼ [0.44, 0.74]; nine studies, n ¼ 3,022) for the questionnaire-based knowledge outcome, which is the outcome most comparable to the outcomes reported in previous reviews.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

School-Based Education Programs for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

Walsh

Zwi

Woolfenden

et al. 2015

Research on Social Work Practice

156

115

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Objective: To assess evidence of the effectiveness of school-based education programs for the prevention of child sexual abuse (CSA). The programs deliver information about CSA and strategies to help children avoid it and encourage help seeking. Methods: Systematic review including meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cluster RCTs, and quasi-RCTs. Results: Twenty-four studies with 5,802 participants were included. Child self-protective skills, odds ratio ¼ 5.71, confidence interval ¼ [1.98, 16.51]; factual, standardized mean difference (SMD) ¼ 0.61 [0.45, 0.78]; and applied knowledge, SMD ¼ 0.45 [0.24, 0.65], increased in the intervention group, and knowledge gains were retained at 6 months, SMD ¼ 0.69 [0.51, 0.87].There were no differences in anxiety or fear, SMD ¼ À0.08 [0.22, 0.07], and findings regarding disclosure of abuse were inconclusive. Conclusion: Children's self-protective skills and knowledge can be increased by participation in school-based sexual abuse prevention programs. However, it is unknown whether gains in skills and knowledge actually decrease the likelihood of CSA.

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Child sexual abuse prevention: Research review and recommendations

Cited by 61 publications

References 10 publications

Child sexual abuse: from prevention to self‐protection

Child sexual abuse: from prevention to self‐protection

The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: A meta-analysis

School-Based Education Programs for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

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