Effective Components of School-Based Prevention Programs for Child Abuse: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

School-based programs seem promising for child abuse prevention. However, research mainly focused on sexual child abuse and knowledge is lacking on how individual program components contribute to the effectiveness of school-based prevention programs for any form of child abuse. This study aimed to examine the overall effect of these school-based programs on (a) children’s child abuse-related knowledge and (b) self-protection skills by conducting two three-level meta-analyses. Furthermore, moderator analyses were performed to identify how program components and delivery techniques were associated with effectiveness. A literature search yielded 34 studies (158 effect sizes; N = 11,798) examining knowledge of child abuse and 22 studies (99 effect sizes; N = 7804) examining self-protection skills. A significant overall effect was found of school-based programs on both knowledge (d = 0.572, 95% CI [0.408, 0.737], p < 0.001) and self-protection skills (d = 0.528, 95% CI [0.262, 0.794], p < 0.001). The results of the first meta-analysis on children’s child abuse knowledge suggest that program effects were larger in programs addressing social–emotional skills of children (d = 0.909 for programs with this component versus d = 0.489 for programs without this component) and self-blame (d = 0.776 versus d = 0.412), and when puppets (d = 1.096 versus d = 0.500) and games or quizzes (d = 0.966 versus d = 0.494) were used. The second meta-analysis on children’s self-protections skills revealed that no individual components or techniques were associated with increased effectiveness. Several other study and program characteristics did moderate the overall effects and are discussed. In general, school-based prevention programs show positive effects on both knowledge and self-protection skills, and the results imply that program effectiveness can be improved by implementing specific components and techniques.

What Works in School-Based Programs for Child Abuse Prevention? The Perspectives of Young Child Abuse Survivors

“…(1) general view on school-based child abuse prevention programs, (2) goals and positive effects of school-based programs, (3) own experiences with school-based programs, (4) effects of school-based programs on knowledge, (5) effects of school-based programs on self-protection skills, (6) potential negative effects of school-based programs, (7) important components of school programs (guided by the work of Gubbels et al 2021b), (8) less important components, and (9) other important aspects of school-based child abuse programs. An overview of the results, including the key themes and the corresponding subthemes, is provided in Table 1.…”

“…We also asked them what components they find important in school-based prevention programs. For the latter we made use of a list of 12 program components that were described in the review of Gubbels et al (2021b), including (1) promoting child abuse related knowledge;…”

“…As the literature indicates that school-based child abuse prevention programs have positive effects on children's child abuse-related knowledge and self-protection skills (Davis and Gidycz 2000;Gubbels et al 2021b;Rispens et al 1997;Walsh et al 2018), questions regarding these effects were included in the interview. Further, the participants were shown an overview of 12 specific program components extracted from the work of Gubbels et al (2021b) on which the content of a school-based child abuse prevention program could be based. For clarification purposes, we divided the components into two sets of six components and asked the participants which components they viewed as most important.…”

“…The results presented below include the reflections of the participants on specific program components that were extracted from the work of Gubbels et al (2021b). As described in the Method section, we divided the components into two sets and, per set, we asked the participant which components they viewed as most important.…”

“…Participants were also asked if there are other important components or aspects that should be addressed in school-based programs, aside from the 12 components as described by Gubbels et al (2021b). Many of the aspects overlapped with the 12 components described above, such as discussing the different forms of child abuse (i.e., child sexual abuse, children who have to take care of their parents), how to recognize and deal with emotions, knowing where to find help, identifying trusted persons, and learning how to talk with teachers.…”