@article{ref1,
title="Child abuse prevention education policies increase reports of child sexual abuse",
journal="Child abuse and neglect",
year="2022",
author="Bright, Melissa A. and Roehrkasse, Alexander and Masten, Sarah and Nauman, Ashton and Finkelhor, David",
volume="134",
number="",
pages="e105932-e105932",
abstract="BACKGROUND: It is well supported that engaging in prevention education increases a child's awareness of child sexual abuse. However, due to methodological limitations, prior research has yet to determine whether this knowledge leads to increases in reporting or substantiation of child sexual abuse. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: We examined whether state mandates for school-based prevention education correlate to changes in reports of child sexual abuse. <br><br>METHODS: We used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the association between child sexual abuse report rates from 2005 to 2019 and presence of state legislation mandating school-based child sexual abuse prevention curricula. Child sexual abuse report data were obtained from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System child files. We focused on reports for school-aged children ages 5-17. Data on state laws on prevention curricula were extracted from enoughabuse.org, Prevent Child Abuse America, ErinsLaw.org, and directly from published legislation. <br><br>RESULTS: State education mandates were associated with an increase in the incidence of child sexual abuse reports made by education personnel (IRR = 1.22, 95 % CI, 1.01-1.48). Policies were not associated with increases in incidence of child sexual abuse reports made by non-education personnel (IRR = 1.08, 95 % CI, 0.95-1.22) or decreases in likelihood that any given report was confirmed (OR = 1.00; 95 % CI, 0.90-1.12). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: There is moderate evidence that adopting state mandates for child sexual abuse prevention education may increase disclosures and reporting of child sexual abuse by school-based sources. There is no evidence that mandates decrease the validity of child sexual abuse reporting by school-based sources.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0145-2134",
doi="10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105932",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105932"
}