TF-CBT, regardless of the number of sessions or the inclusion of a TN component, was effective in improving participant symptomatology as well as parenting skills and the children's personal safety skills. The eight session condition that included the TN component seemed to be the most effective and efficient means of ameliorating parents' abuse-specific distress as well as children's abuse-related fear and general anxiety. On the other hand, parents assigned to the 16 session, no narrative condition reported greater increases in effective parenting practices and fewer externalizing child behavioral problems at posttreatment.

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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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This study examined the relationship of attributional style, posttrauma, and depressive symptoms among children who have suffered either physical or sexual abuse. Ninety-eight children (67 physically abused, 31 sexually abused) were administered a depression inventory, the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-Reaction Index (PTSD-RI), and Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ). With regard to group differences, the sexual abuse group scored significantly higher on the PTSD-RI, whereas the physical abuse group scored higher on the CASQ Composite for Negative Events. Results also indicated that attributional style predicted depression beyond the variance accounted for by abuse type (i.e., physical or sexual). However, the best predictor of PTSD-RI scores was an interaction effect between abuse type and negative attributional style. Clinical implications of these findings for children who suffer abuse are discussed.