Teaching Youth to Resist Abuse: Evaluation of a Strengths-Based Child Maltreatment Curriculum for High School Students

Abstract

Child maltreatment (CM) is a serious and prevalent public health problem in the United States (U.S.) yet programming to combat the issue often overlooks high school aged youth (those aged 14-17). In 2017, over 90,000 youth in the U.S. experienced CM during their high school years (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2019). This manuscript will highlight the importance of prevention programs for youth affected by child maltreatment and report the findings of a pilot study that examined the effectiveness of the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe Prevention Education Curriculum among high school students. The purpose of the pilot study was to determine if the revised and expanded curriculum for grades 9-12 was feasible and to examine the validity of the new survey items, including the RESIST strategy questions. The pilot study utilized a two-phase non-probability convenience sample to evaluate high school student gains in knowledge of safety related resistance strategies. High school students (N = 269) attending one urban charter public high school (grades 9-12) in the Southwest who completed pre-and postsurvey RESIST strategy items participated in the pilot. The results indicated that students receiving the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe Prevention Education Curriculum increased their identification and knowledge of safety related resistance strategies.

Assessing the Effects of Childhelp’s Speak Up be Safe Child Abuse Prevention Curriculum for High School Students

“…Curriculum Development In 2014-2015, Childhelp initiated a partnership with the Center to complete an evidence-informed update to the curriculum and instruments, a process that included a curriculum pilot test in 2016 (Diaz et al, 2021). In the CHSUBS curriculum, students learn how to be safe through various concepts, key terms, and safety rules depending on their grade level.…”

“…School-based child safety programs are an increasingly common method to address CM (Finkelhor et al, 2018). Schools provide daily contact with children and parents, and studies show that children who participate in school-based programs are more likely to report instances of sexual abuse than children who did not participate in a prevention program (Walsh et al, 2018).…”

“…Schools provide daily contact with children and parents, and studies show that children who participate in school-based programs are more likely to report instances of sexual abuse than children who did not participate in a prevention program (Walsh et al, 2018). Research has found that youth have made substantial gains in abuse-related knowledge and skills due to participating in child abuse prevention programming (Dale et al, 2016;Finkelhor et al, 2018). Educating high school students about this topic is essential to prevent CM from occurring in the future and reduce the impact of CM that might have already occurred.…”

“…Childhelp's Speak Up Be Safe (CHSUBS) prevention curriculum is designed for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 and focuses on disrupting all forms of child abuse and maltreatment, including neglect and cyberbullying (Diaz et al, 2021). Research supports the effectiveness of child safety and prevention efforts that focus on the broad spectrum of victimizations youth suffer (Finklehor et al, 2009).…”

Bullying, Victimization, and Resiliency: An Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The design of the research is described in this article, as well as the interventions itself. The second article involves an evaluation of a child maltreatment curriculum for high school students (Diaz et al 2021). This is a unique pilot study because it is geared to high school students, whereas most other programs focus on younger students.…”