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

Abstract

School-based education programmes for the prevention of child sexual abuse have been implemented on a large scale in some countries. We reviewed the evidence for the effectiveness of these programmes in the following areas: (i) children's skills in protective behaviours; (ii) children's knowledge of child sexual abuse prevention concepts; (iii) children's retention of protective behaviours over time; (iv) children's retention of knowledge over time; (v) parental or child anxiety or fear as a result of programme participation; and (vi) disclosures of past or current child sexual abuse during or after programmes....This review included 24 studies, conducted with a total of 5,802 participants in primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools in the United States, Canada, China, Germany, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey....This review found evidence that school-based sexual abuse prevention programmes were effective in increasing participants' skills in protective behaviours and knowledge of sexual abuse prevention concepts (measured via questionnaires or vignettes). Knowledge gains (measured via questionnaires) were not significantly eroded one to six months after the intervention for either intervention or control groups. In terms of harm, there was no evidence that programmes increased or decreased children's anxiety or fear. No studies measured parental anxiety or fear. Children exposed to a child sexual abuse prevention programme had greater odds of disclosing their abuse than children who had not been exposed, however we were more uncertain about this effect when the analysis was adjusted to account for the grouping of participants in classes or schools. Studies have not yet adequately measured the long-term benefits of programmes in terms of reducing the incidence or prevalence (or both) of child sexual abuse in programme participants. (Author text)