Citation

Czerwinski F, Finne E, Alfes J, Kolip P. Child Abuse Negl. 2018; 86: 109-122.

Affiliation

School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstraße 25, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany. Electronic address: petra.kolip@uni-bielefeld.de.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.08.023

PMID

30278285

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Child 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.

METHODS: This 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.

RESULTS: The 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.

CONCLUSION: The 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.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Child sexual abuse; Evaluation; Intervention; Prevention; Primary school; School children