Examination of Public Perceptions of Four Types of Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs Brandon Kopp Raymond Miltenberger

Introduction  1 in 5 children is victimized before reaching adulthood  Sexual abuse has been shown to have severe and long lasting effects

Introduction – Training Methods  Information-Based  Examples Verbal Presentation Video Coloring/Activity Book Theatrical Presentation  Behavioral Skills Training (BST)  Instruction  Modeling  Rehearsal  Social Reinforcement  Corrective Feedback

Introduction – Program Content  Basic Principles of Sexual Abuse Prevention  Body Ownership  Types of Touching  Refusing, Escaping and Reporting Skills  Strangers vs. Known Individuals as Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse  90% of children are abused by people they know

Introduction - Hypothesis  Since practice has been shown to be most effective in teaching skills, and children are most often abused by someone they know, a program incorporating Known Perpetrators and BST should be most highly rated  Hypothesis: Because it is easier to administer and is viewed as less controversial, a program incorporating Strangers as offenders and Information-Based training methods will be most highly rated by participants

Method – Participants  59 Participants (34 female, 25 male)  Age  Mean =  SD = 2.80  Range = –  Participants who took part in this study earned extra credit for 100 – 300 level psychology courses at NDSU

Method - Questionnaire  Main Program Description  Program Format  Common Content  Body Ownership  Types of Touching  Refusing, Escaping, and Reporting Skills  # of sessions (2)  Length of each session (45 min.)  Age of participants (10)  Size of groups (10-20 children)

Method – Questionnaire (cont.)  Four Different Versions of Main Program  Type of Perpetrator  Stranger vs. Known Individual  Training Method  Information-Based vs. Behavioral Skills Training Information-BasedBST StrangerStranger/InfoStranger/BST Known IndividualKnown/InfoKnown/BST

Modified Treatment Evaluation Inventory – Short Form (TEI-SF)  I find this training program to be an acceptable way of teaching children sexual abuse prevention skills.  I would be willing to use this training program if I had to teach children sexual abuse prevention skills. Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

 I like the methods used in this training program.  I believe this training program is likely to be effective.  I believe the child receiving training will experience discomfort during the training program. Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

 I believe this training program is likely to result in permanent improvement in a child’s sexual abuse prevention skills.  Overall, I have a positive reaction to this training program. Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Method - Questionnaire  Participants’ answers for question 1-4, 6, and 7 were coded as follows:  Strongly Disagree = 1  Disagree = 2  Neutral = 3  Agree = 4  Strongly Agree = 5  Answers for question 5 were reverse coded  This gives a range of possible scores of 7 – 35  The higher a program version was rated the more acceptable participants thought it was

Method - Procedure  Participants were given the following instructions:  Do not share answers with other participants  Read through each version in the order it appears in the packet  Rate each of the versions using the 7 statement evaluation form below each one  Rate each of the program versions independently of one another

Results  Means Information-BasedBST Stranger Known Individual

Results - Comparison of Means

Results – 2-Way RM ANOVA  Main Effects  Type of Perpetrator F(1,57) = , p < 0.001, sig.  Training Method F(1,57) = 8.270, p < 0.01, sig.  Interaction  Perpetrator X Training Method F (1,57) = 2.420, p > 0.05, ns

Paired Samples T-Tests Stranger/BST (25.02) >Known/BST (21.15) p < Stranger/Info (25.78) >Known/Info (23.19) p < 0.01 Known/Info (23.19) >Known/BST (21.15) p < 0.05 Stranger/Info (25.78) >Known/BST (21.15) p < 0.001

Results - Exploratory Analyses (cont.)  Effects of Participant Characteristics  No significant effects were found for any of our between-subjects variables  Gender  CSA prevention training as a child  CSA prevention training as an adult  Volunteer experience dealing with CSA  Experience with CSA victimization (either self or through someone close to them)

Results  Kronbach’s Alpha Test of Reliability Information-BasedBST Stranger Known Individual

Discussion - Conclusions  With a scale of , a score of 21 would be the dividing point between acceptable and not  Mean scores fell between and 25.78, showing none were rated as highly acceptable

Discussion - Conclusions  When strangers are shown as perpetrators, training method is not important  Programs portraying strangers as offenders were rated significantly higher than programs portraying known individuals as perpetrators of sexual abuse

Discussion - Conclusions  If known individuals are shown as perpetrators then an information-based program is preferable  Those programs utilizing strangers as perpetrators and information-based training methods are preferable to programs using known individuals and BST

Discussion – This Study’s Weaknesses  Using students as raters  No determination of whether differences were due to lack of knowledge or biases toward programs that are easier to administer and less controversial  No assessment of participants’ reading ability

Discussion – Recommendations for Future Research  Replicate study with a more ecologically valid participant sample  Parents  School administrators  Add questions to assess participants’ knowledge of sexual abuse perpetrators and effectiveness of training methods