An Educational Program for Mothers to Protect their Children from Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Background: Sexual harassment is a real and serious problem that can affect any child or youth regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnic, age groups and occurs at all socioeconomic levels. Aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of an educational program for mothers to protect their children from sexual harassment. Research design: A quasi experimental design was used, setting: The study was conduct at Shoubra maternal and child health care center it selected randomly from Shoubra district in Cairo governorate. Sample: A purposive sample of 110 mother their children age from 4 to 18years, regardless the gender. The tools of this study included, an interviewing questionnaire for mothers to assess mothers knowledge and behaviors. Results: findings of the present study, revealed that, there were highly statistically significant differences between pre and post educational program related to mothers' knowledge and behaviors. There were improvement of the mothers' knowledge and behaviors after the program implementation. conclusion the mothers improved their knowledge and behaviors related to protection of their children from sexual harassment. Recommendation: The sexual harassment educational program must be provided for all parents of children to improve their knowledge about sexual harassment, an-orientation program for newly mothers to improve mothers knowledge level about sexual harassment and mass media could efficiently be utilized to offer specific educational programs to community to raise the mothers' knowledge about protection of their children from sexual harassment.

Effect of Health Educational Program on Knowledge, Practices and Attitudes of Mothers toward Child Maltreatment

“…In the researchers' opinion, increasing mothers' knowledge post program had a positive influence on their attitude and in turn their practice. These results could be supported by Fatouh W et al (2020), who reported that there was a significant correlation between knowledge and behaviors of mothers' pre and post educational program. (37) Furthermore, Adel etal (2022) reported in their study that there were positive statistically significant correlations between mothers' total knowledge, total reported practices and total attitude level about protecting their children from sexual abuse.…”

“…These results could be supported by Fatouh W et al (2020), who reported that there was a significant correlation between knowledge and behaviors of mothers' pre and post educational program. (37) Furthermore, Adel etal (2022) reported in their study that there were positive statistically significant correlations between mothers' total knowledge, total reported practices and total attitude level about protecting their children from sexual abuse. (48) Similarly, Cheraghi et al (2017) described that it was predicted that changing attitudinal behavior, practices and knowledge, would in turn result in positive parental behavior and diminish the child abuse.…”

“…(36) Also, Fatouh W et al (2020) declared improvement in mothers' knowledge apropos protecting their children from sexual harassment. (37) In addition, Hima V Krishnan et al (2021) reported that the knowledge of rural mothers concerning child abuse increased after educating them. (38) At the same line, Maya B etal (2022) indicated in their study that level of knowledge was elevated among parents after structured teaching program with a significant difference between the level of knowledge before and after the teaching program.…”

Picture-Based Program for Raising Awareness of Preschool Children Regarding Self-Protection from Sexual Harassment

“…There are previous Egyptian studies implemented educational intervention for mothers to protect their children from sexual harassment. (19) (20) (21) However, the children spend a considerable time apart from their mothers and need to know how to stay safe and how to protect themselves from potential harassment situations especially the perpetrators are often known to the child. Due to the scarcity of the programs that targeting children, the current study aimed to evaluate the effect of picture-based program of on awareness of preschool children regarding self-protection from sexual harassment in response to the Egypt vision 2030.…”