Effectiveness of a school-based intervention to prevent child sexual abuse—Evaluation of the German IGEL program |
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| Institution: | 1. Graduate School of Education, Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, United States;2. Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, United States;1. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, United States;2. The Sex Abuse Treatment Center, United States;1. Florida International University, Department of Counseling, Recreation and School Psychology, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199, United States;2. Florida International University, Department of Psychology, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199, United States;1. Counselling and Reproductive Health Research Centre, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran;2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shohada Hospital of Quchan, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Quchan, Iran;3. Counselling and Reproductive Health Research Centre, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran;4. Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA;1. School of Applied Psychology and Menzies Health Institute of Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia;2. Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia;3. College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia;4. Act for Kids, Queensland, Australia;1. Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;2. Center for Research on Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA), Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
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| Abstract: | BackgroundChild sexual abuse (CSA) is a problem with severe consequences for victimized children. A variety of interventions have been developed and implemented over the last decades to prevent CSA. However, most of them have not been systematically evaluated to determine their effectiveness. The IGEL program is a school-based intervention to prevent CSA in third-grade primary school children in Germany.MethodsThis study was conducted using a quasi-experimental design, in which almost 300 children and their parents from eight intervention and four control schools were surveyed three times (pretest, posttest, 3 months later). In order to measure outcomes, a questionnaire was developed based on validated instruments to assess the knowledge, courses of action and self-protective skills of the children. Furthermore, increased anxiety and generalized touch aversion were examined as potentially harmful side effects of the program.ResultsThe results clearly demonstrate increased CSA-related knowledge and courses of action in children from the intervention group compared to the control children. These effects were medium-sized and sustained for at least three months after the last session. No meaningful negative side effects were detected in the evaluation for either the children or parents.ConclusionThe outcome evaluation indicates that the IGEL program is an effective intervention in terms of knowledge about CSA and known courses of action, and may therefore contribute to the prevention of CSA in primary schools. Despite this positive core finding of the intermediate outcomes, some adaptations of the program to children with different cultural backgrounds were made prior to further dissemination. |
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| Keywords: | Prevention Child sexual abuse School children Primary school Intervention Evaluation |
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