Evaluating a child abuse prevention programme’s influence on knowledge,attitudes,and beliefs

Abstract

Background:

Child sexual abuse confers immediate and long-lasting trauma on victims, their families, and communities. Prevention programmes focus on providing education and support to the victims, but service providers who work with children also need training and support in child sexual abuse prevention.

Purpose:

To assess the impact that a child sexual abuse prevention programme has on adults’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about child sexual abuse.

Methods:

Three counties in North Carolina participated in the Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children® Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programme. We report findings from 2,473 participants, including service providers who worked closely with children. A nonexperimental pre-/postevaluation design was used to assess the training’s immediate impact on participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to abuse prevention. Electronic surveys were administered before and after the training. Each participant completed a 24-item pretest and posttest survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the instrument’s structure, yielding three subscales: knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs, with strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha ⩾ .75). Paired-sample t-tests and two-way repeated measures analyses assessed within-subject changes and subgroup differences by organisational affiliation, race, and ethnicity.

Results:

Significant changes in knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs from pre- to posttest were found among all participants and across all outcomes, across different organisational and demographic groups.

Discussion:

Demonstrated improvements highlight the impact and implications of evidence-based training on child abuse policy and practice and providing justification for future research to further develop this field of study.