Preventing the Onset of Child Sexual Abuse by Targeting Young Adolescents With Universal Prevention Programming

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a serious public health problem that increases risk for physical and mental health problems across the life course. Young adolescents are responsible for a substantial portion of CSA offending, yet to our knowledge, no validated prevention programs that target CSA perpetration by youth exist. Most existing efforts to address CSA rely on reactive criminal justice policies or programs that teach children to protect themselves; neither approach is well validated. Given the high rates of desistance from sexual offending following a youth’s first CSA-related adjudication, it seems plausible that many youth could be prevented from engaging in their first offense. The goal of this article is to examine how school-based universal prevention programs might be used to prevent CSA perpetrated by adolescents. We review the literature on risk and protective factors for CSA perpetration and identify several promising factors to target in an intervention. We also summarize the literature on programs that have been effective at preventing adolescent dating violence and other serious problem behaviors. Finally, we describe a new CSA prevention program under development and early evaluation and make recommendations for program design characteristics, including unambiguous messaging, parental involvement, multisession dosage, skills practice, and bystander considerations.

The economic burden of child sexual abuse in the United States

“…The U.S. has not, however, focused broadly on the prevention of CSA (Letourneau et al, 2014, Letourneau, Schaeffer, Bradshaw, & Feder, 2017; McMahon & Puett, 1999; Mendelson & Letourneau, 2015; Mercy, 1999). Despite the obvious appeal of preventing sexual harm from occurring in the first place, many people view CSA as uniquely unpreventable (Volmert, Fond, & O’Neil, 2015) and, therefore, most efforts involve after-the-fact criminal justice interventions that target known offenders.…”

Cluster randomised controlled trial of ‘whole school’ child maltreatment prevention programme in primary schools in Northern Ireland: study protocol for Keeping Safe

“…Keeping Safe is a comprehensive multi component ‘Whole-School’ programme designed to teach children aged four to 11 years old how to keep safe from all forms of maltreatment, including: neglect, sexual abuse carried out online or using digital technology, abuse perpetrated by other children, and bullying. This is premised on identified priority gaps in existing programmes [ 12 , 13 , 22 , 26 , 33 , 37 ] and the fact that key messages have applicability across multiple forms of maltreatment [ 28 , 47 ]. Table 1 outlines the key themes and messages taught to children and tailored to their age and developmental needs.…”

“…Parents are engaged in directed homework activities with their children and are encouraged to attend a structured information session and expert workshops seeking to build their knowledge, skills and confidence to reinforce their children’s learning at school. Training and support for teachers and whole school staff, also an important component of the Keeping Safe programme [ 26 , 30 , 54 ], involves a blended package of training aimed at building the capacity of school leaders, teaching and non-teaching staff to teach and embed the programme in all aspects of school life.…”

“…Methodological shortcomings in the evaluation of programmes have led to a lack of evidence as to whether school based prevention programmes actually reduce maltreatment [ 35 ]. More rigorous evaluation is required to address this question of effectiveness [ 13 , 29 , 30 , 33 , 36 , 37 ] and should include the use of experimental designs [ 29 , 35 ], appropriate standardised validated measures [ 14 , 26 , 30 – 32 ], measurement of behavioural outcomes [ 28 , 29 , 32 , 33 , 35 ], exploration of negative/adverse effects and should include follow up in the longer term [ 29 , 32 ].…”

“…1 ) informed by the principles associated with effective prevention interventions [ 38 , 39 ], and a review of international research evidence and practice [ 12 , 28 , 29 , 31 – 34 , 40 , 41 ], which sought to identify effective components of school based maltreatment prevention programmes and gaps in current practice. Moreover, local evidence captured through a comprehensive needs assessment with stakeholders in Northern Ireland [ 42 – 46 ] was also used to inform the development of a programme model that is culturally appropriate and attuned to the child protection practice environment that exists in Northern Ireland [ 25 , 26 , 30 ].

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