Pilot Evaluation of a Sexual Abuse Prevention Program for Taiwanese Children

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to develop and evaluate the efficacy of a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program for Taiwanese children. Forty-six Taiwanese children age 6 to 13 were divided into one of two groups based on their school grade and then randomly assigned to a skills-based child sexual abuse prevention program who received training immediately or a waiting-list control condition who received the training after a delay. Children's self-protection skills improved regardless of age after participation in the program. The program, however, did not successfully improve children's knowledge of sexuality and safety. Although future studies should modify the program content to better target knowledge of sexuality and safety, these results are promising for a pilot of this skills-based CSA prevention program in Taiwan.

School‐based Education Programmes for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review

“…We asked authors of studies in which methods of sequence generation, allocation concealment, or blinding were unclear to provide additional information (see Assessment of risk of bias in included studies). We contacted corresponding authors of studies with insufficient information to allow inclusion in meta‐analyses (Harvey 1988; Saslawsky 1986 in 2007; Chen 2012; Kraizer 1991 in 2013) and studies that used cluster‐randomisation (Dake 2003; see Unit of analysis issues) via email with a request to provide additional data. In some instances, authors were able to provide data as requested, however, the majority did not respond to requests.…”

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

“…Ethnicity data were reported in 13 studies. Two studies reported 100% Chinese participants (Chen et al, 2012;Lee & Tang, 1998); in five studies, the predominant ethnicity reported was White or Caucasian comprising 74% to 97% of participants (Grendel, 1991;Oldfield et al, 1996;Poche et al, 1988;Snyder, 1986;Tutty, 1997); and six studies reported diverse samples in which the proportion of non-White participants ranged from 32% (Hazzard, Webb, Kleemeier, Angert, & Pohl, 1991) to 66% (Dake, Price, & Murnan, 2003). Parental socioeconomic position, religious background, and participants' school achievement data (e.g., grades) at baseline were not reported in any study.…”

“…Contents of or topics covered in the intervention programs included safety rules, body ownership, private parts, distinguishing appropriate and inappropriate touches, distinguishing types of secrets, and whom to tell. Four studies also included abduction prevention content (Chen et al, 2012;Fryer et al, 1987aFryer et al, , 1987bS. Kraizer, 1991;Poche et al, 1988).…”

“…The teaching method, review, which involved revisiting previous content and summarizing new content, was nominated in one study (Grendel, 1991). A specific suite of teaching strategies was designated in four studies, including instruction, modeling, rehearsal, social reinforcement, shaping, feedback, and group mastery (Chen et al, 2012;Lee & Tang, 1998;Wurtele, Saslawsky, Miller, Marrs, & Britcher, 1986).…”

“…In the seven remaining studies, the control group interventions were as follows: discussion about self-concept Wurtele et al, 1986), multimedia presentation with no child abuse content (Harvey et al, 1988), fire safety (Blumberg, 1987;Blumberg et al, 1991;Chadwick, 1989), fire or water safety (Hazzard et al, 1991), attention control program (Lee & Tang, 1998), and a game of hangman (Snyder, 1986). All programs were delivered on school premises and during school hours, apart from one study in which the program was delivered in the morning, before school classes began (Chen et al, 2012).…”