Citation

Stilwell SL, Lutzker JR, Greene BF. J. Fam. Violence 1988; 3(4): 269-281.

Affiliation

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 62901 Carbondale, Illinois; University of Judaism, 90077 Los Angeles, California

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00989977

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many sexual abuse prevention programs have no research basis to support their claims of effectiveness. The Sexual Abuse Prevention Program for Preschoolers (SAPPP) was developed by modifying a popular prevention program to include behavioral training and rehearsal, and evaluation components. Children were taught to identify different types of touch, to say no, and to tell others. Each of the six SAPPP lessons included a topic introduction, stories related to the topic, target behavior rehearsal: This was followed by class discussion. Four university preschool children, three females and one male, between the ages of 3 and 4 participated in the program. All of the children showed improvement from pretest to post-test. The improved post-test scores were the result of correct verbal responses. Correct behavior demonstration responses did not increase for any child. A successful child sexual abuse prevention program should train children to demonstrate appropriate preventive behaviors. Suggestions for improving preventive behavior skills demonstrations and increasing the number of children in future research are discussed.