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
= 21.34
 SD = 2.80
 Range = 18.78 – 34.66
 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

# of sessions (2)

Length of each session (45 min.)

Age of participants (10)

Size of groups (10-20 children)

Common Content



Body Ownership
Types of Touching
Refusing, Escaping, and Reporting Skills
Method – Questionnaire (cont.)
 Four
Different Versions of Main Program
 Type

of Perpetrator
Stranger vs. Known Individual
 Training

Method
Information-Based vs. Behavioral Skills Training
Stranger
Known Individual
Information-Based
Stranger/Info
BST
Stranger/BST
Known/Info
Known/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.
Strongly
Disagree

Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly
Agree
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

I like the methods used in this training program.
Strongly
Disagree

Neutral
Agree
Strongly
Agree
I believe this training program is likely to be effective.
Strongly
Disagree

Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly
Agree
I believe the child receiving training will experience discomfort
during the training program.
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.
Strongly
Disagree

Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly
Agree
Overall, I have a positive reaction to this training program.
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
Stranger
Information-Based
25.78
BST
25.02
Known Individual
23.22
21.15
Results - Comparison of Means
35
34
33
32
31
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
Stranger
Known
Information-Based
BST
Results – 2-Way RM ANOVA
 Main

Type of Perpetrator


Effects
F(1,57) = 14.832, 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)
Stranger/Info
(25.78)
Known/Info
(23.19)
Stranger/Info
(25.78)
> Known/BST
(21.15)
> Known/Info
(23.19)
> Known/BST
(21.15)
> Known/BST
(21.15)
p < 0.001
p < 0.01
p < 0.05
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
Stranger
Known Individual
Test of Reliability
Information-Based
0.8724
BST
0.9064
0.9138
0.9142
Discussion - Conclusions
 With
a scale of 7 - 35, a score of 21
would be the dividing point between
acceptable and not
 Mean scores fell between 21.15 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
 Add
administrators
questions to assess participants’
knowledge of sexual abuse perpetrators
and effectiveness of training methods