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1、Pergamon Child Abuse&Neglect,Vol.21,No.8,pp.805-814.1997 Copyright 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA.All rights reserved 0145-2134/97$17.00+.00 PII S0145-2134(97)00040-9 TEACHING PERSONAL SAFETY SKILLS TO YOUNG CHILDREN:AN INVESTIGATION OF AGE AND GENDER ACROSS FIVE STUDIES SANDY K.WURTEL
2、E AND JULIE SARNO OWENS Department of Psychology,University of Colorado at Colorado Springs,Colorado Springs,CO,USA ABSTRACT Objective:To determine the extent to which preschool-aged boys and girls can benefit from instruction in personal safety.Method:Data compiled from five previous studies were e
3、mployed.Four hundred and six preschoolers were pretested and participated in either the Behavioral Skills Training program(BST;Wurtele,1986)or a control program.Children were posttested on skill and knowledge gains.Results:Preschoolers who had participated in the BST program demonstrated greater kno
4、wledge and higher levels of personal safety skills compared with controls.Boys and girls reacted similarly to the program,as did children from younger and older age groups.Conclusions:These results provide support for the assertion that most preschool-aged children can benefit from partici-pating in
5、 a developmentally appropriate personal safety program.Suggestions for expanding the efforts to prevent child sexual abuse are offered,so that children do not shoulder the full responsibility for prevention.1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Key Words-Child sexual abuse,Prevention,Personal safety.INTRODUCTIO
6、N IN RESPONSE TO the growing awareness of the scope and consequences of child sexual abuse(CSA),many programs to prevent its occurrence have been developed and disseminated since the 1980s.Unlike efforts to prevent the physical abuse or neglect of children(which focus on modifying adult behavior),th
7、e focus of CSA prevention efforts has been primarily to alter the knowledge and skills of children,through group-based instruction on personal safety,usually conducted in educational settings.Reviews have been fairly consistent in showing that these programs produce significant gains in knowledge an
8、d skills thought to be useful in helping children avoid sexual victimization(see Berrick&Barth,1992;Daro,1994;MacMillan,MacMillan,fiord,Griffith,&MacMillan,1994;Tutty,1993;Wurtele&Miller-Perrin,1992).Although child-focused CSA prevention programs have become the strategy of choice used by communitie
9、s to protect children from being sexually abused,there is less consensus in the research community as to whether preschool-aged children should receive CSA prevention training.Ad-vocates of such training point out that 25%to 35%of all sexually abused children are under the age of 7(Cupoli&Sewell,198
10、8;Eckenrode,Munsch,Powers,&Doris,1988).In contrast,critics of these programs have asserted that children below the age of 7 cannot learn CSA prevention Received for publication November 21,1996;final revision received February 3,1997;accepted February 6,1997.Reprint requests should be addressed to S
11、andy K.Wurtele,Ph.D.,Department of Psychology,University of Colorado at Colorado Springs,1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway,Colorado Springs,CO 80933-7150.1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.All rights reserved.8O5 806 s.K.Wurtele and J.Sarno Owens concepts because of their limited cognitive abilities(Gilbert,Berrick
12、,Le Prohn,&Nyman,1989;Krivacska,1990;Reppucci&Haugaard,1989,1993;Webster,1991).Consistent with these concerns,studies that compared responses of children from different age groups have found that older children know more initially and learn more of the concepts,compared with younger children(Blumber
13、g,Chadwick,Fogarty,Speth,&Chadwick,1991;Liang,Bogat,&McGrath,1993;Nemerofsky,Carran,&Rosenberg,1994;Saslawsky&Wurtele,1986;Tutty,1992;Wurtele,Currier,Gillispie,&Franklin,1991;Wurtele,Saslawsky,Miller,Marrs,&Britcher,1986).The one exception was a study by Kraizer,Witte,and Fryer(1989)in which prescho
14、olers and kindergart-ners showed greater gains in knowledge compared with first,second,and third graders.Given that elementary school-aged children consistently know more and learn more about CSA concepts than preschoolers,it is necessary tbr CSA prevention researchers to determine if,and to what de
15、gree,young children can benefit from education in personal safety.One purpose of the present study was to further examine the extent to which preschoolers are able to learn personal safety concepts and skills.Along with age characteristics,effects according to gender need to be determined.Most CSA p
16、revention studies have found no differences according to gender(e.g.,Bogat&McGrath,1993;Kolko,Moser,&Hughes,1989),but three studies found school-aged girls to be more knowledge-able about CSA and its prevention compared with boys(Finkelhor,Asdigian,&Dziuba-Leather-man,1995;Hazzard,Kleemeier,&Webb,19
17、90;Sigurdson,Strang,&Doig,1987).Given that boys are also at risk for sexual abuse,it is important to ensure that boys are able to learn the concepts and skills taught in personal safety programs.Thus,a second purpose of the study was to determine if a personal safety program has differential effects
18、 on boys and girls.Given that CSA prevention research is in its early stages,the knowledge base is limited by methodological problems,including small sample sizes,absence of control groups,and use of evaluation instruments with unknown psychometric properties.To overcome these limitations,a large sa
19、mple of male and female preschoolers involved in five studies served as participants.This large sample allows us to further examine the extent to which young male and female children can learn personal safety concepts and skills.Based on previous findings,we predicted significant increases in scores
20、 over time for children who participated in the personal safety program,and that older preschoolers would learn more than younger preschoolers,but given the inconsistency in the literature,no prediction was made regarding a gender effect.METHOD Participants Participants were 406 children(209 girls a
21、nd 197 boys)involved in studies conducted from 1990 to 1995(Sarno&Wurtele,1997;Wurtele,1990,1993;Wurtele,Currier,Gillispie,&Franklin,1991;Wurtele,Kast,&Melzer,1992).Participants ranged in age from 41 to 68 months with a mean age of 54.7 months(SD=4.62).To determine the effects of age,children were d
22、ivided by median split into younger(41 to 54 months)and older(55 to 68 months)groups.The median split ensured equal ns in both groups and has been used in a previous study which found significant age differences(Wurtele et al.,1991).Other demographic characteristics are reported in Table 1.Procedure
23、 All studies were approved by the Human Subjects Committee.Specific data collection proce-dures are described in detail in each study.In general,upon receiving both written parental consent and verbal child assent,children were pretested using the What If Situations Test(WIST)and Personal Safety Que
24、stionnaire(PSQ)1 week prior to participation in the BST program.Children were rank ordered,based on their pretest scores on the WIST and PSQ,and randomly assigned to Teaching personal safety skills Table 1.Demographic Characteristics of Participants Characteristic Number(%)Group Behavior skills trai
25、ning 262(65.5%)Control 144(35.5%)Sex Female 209(51.5%)Male 197(48.5%)Ethnicity White 247(63.0%)Nonwhite 145(37.0%)Residence Two-parent family 224(55.2%)Single-parent mother 153(37.7%)Single-parent father 8(2.0%)Other/missing 21(4.1%)Yearly Income Under$1000 17(4.5%)$1,000-$9,999 160(42.3%)$10,000-$1
26、9,999 122(32.3%)$20,000-$29,000 39(10.3%)$30,000-$39,999 21(5.6%)$40,000-$49,999 13(3.4%)Over$50,000 6(1.5%)807 either the Behavioral Skills Training program(BST;n-262)or a control group(n=144).The difference in sample sizes reflects that two of the studies were multiple-treatment studies;where more
27、 than one BST group was compared to a single control group.The BST program(Wurtele,1986)is a 5 day program that teaches children personal safety skills from a behavioral perspective.Using a standard script with pictures,instructors(whether parents or teachers)taught children:(a)that they are the bos
28、ses of their bodies;(b)to identify the location of their private parts;(c)that it is acceptable for children to touch their own private parts,as long as it is done in private;(d)that it is appropriate for doctors,nurses,or parents to touch childrens private parts(e.g,for health or hygiene reasons);(
29、e)that otherwise,it is not okay to have their private parts touched or looked at by a bigger person,especially if the person wants them to keep it a secret;(f)that it is wrong to be forced to touch a bigger persons private parts;and(g)that a bigger persons inappropriate touching of a childs private
30、parts is never the childs fault.Children were taught their own body safety rule that,Its not okay for a bigger person to touch or look at my private parts(unless they need help,like if their private parts get hurt or need cleaning).The program includes several stories about children in benign and po
31、tentially dangerous situations with various people(e.g.,babysitters,relatives).Children practice discriminating be-tween appropriate and inappropriate touch requests,and are taught(via modeling,rehearsal,reinforcement,and feedback)the appropriate verbal(e.g.,say No!)and physical responses(e.g.,try t
32、o get away,tell someone)to exhibit in the inappropriate situations.During the 2 consecutive school days after the program had been taught,all children were posttested using the WIST and the PSQ items.At both testing periods,interviewers were kept blind to the hypotheses and the group assignment of t
33、he children.Following the posttesting,children in the control group participated in the BST program.Child Dependent Measures What If Situations Test(WIST),The WIST measures childrens ability to recognize and respond in hypothetical abusive situa-tions.This measure consists of six brief vignettes:thr
34、ee describe appropriate requests to touch or 808 S.K.Wurtele and J.Sarno Owens look at a childs genitals(e.g.,a physician wanting to touch the childs injured private parts)and three describe inappropriate touch requests(e.g.,a neighbor wanting to take.pictures of the childs private parts).None of th
35、ese specific situations was taught in the personal safety program.In order to determine childrens ability to recognize abuse,after each vignette,children were asked,Would it be OK for person in vignette to do activity requested?Correct respons.es receive one point.Responses to the question yield two
36、 Recognition scores:(a)an Appropriate Request Recognition score,which measures childrens ability to recognize three appropriate-touch requests(range=0-3);and(b)an Inappropriate Request Recognition score,which measures childrens ability to recognize the three inappropriate-touch requests(range=0-3).F
37、or Appropriate and Inappropriate Request Recognition scores,1-month test-retest reliabilities(Pearson r),based on controls pretest and posttest scores,were.76 and.81,respectively(both ps .01).For inappropriate request vignettes correctly identified,children were asked:(a)What would you say to person
38、 in vignette?(SAY?);(b)What would you do?(DO?);(c)Would you tell anyone about the situation?;if so Who would you tell?(TELL?);and(d)What would you say to person named in c?(REPORT?).Responses to each question receive 0 to 2 points,depending on the effec-tiveness of the responses.Cluster analysis has
39、 confirmed that the WIST is composed of these separate skills components(Liang et al.,1993).Childrens scores on the four personal safety skills,a through d,(maximum=8 points per vignette)were summed across the three inappropriate-request vignettes for a Total Skill score of 24.One-month test-retest
40、reliability based on controls pretest and posttest Total Skill scores was.83,p .01.In each study,childrens responses on the WIST and PSQ were scored by two independent raters.Interrater(Kappa coefficient)reliabilities ranged from.87(Sarno&Wurtele,1997)to.98(Wurtele et al.,1991).Two additional vignet
41、tes assessed childrens knowledge about sexual abuse(slSecifically,whose fault it is and whether secret touches should be reported)along with their attitudes toward sexuality.The questions were taken from the Personal Safety Questionnaire(PSQ;see Wurtele et al.,1992).In the first vignette,children we
42、re told that a big person touches a kids private parts,and were then asked PSQ Question 1:Has the kid done something wrong?They were also told What if the big person says,dont tell anyone,lets keep it a secret,and asked PSQ Question 2:Should the kid tell someone?To assess attitudes toward sexuality,
43、children were presented with the vignette,What if you were in the bathtub and you were washing your body,and were asked two questions:PSQ Question 3(Would it be okay for you to touch your own private parts?)and PSQ Question 4(Do you like your private parts?).For these items,a positive attitude towar
44、d sexuality was indicated by a yes response.At posttest,children were also asked if they liked the program.RESULTS WIST Recognition and Total Skill Scores Table 2 contains the means(and standard deviations)by group at Time 1(pretest)and Time 2(posttest)for the Inappropriate Request Recognition,Appro
45、priate Request Recognition,and Total WIST Skill scores.To assess the effectsvf the BST program,2 2 x 2 x 2(Group Gender x Age Time)repeated-measures Analyses of Variance(ANOVAs)were conducted.(Alpha levels were adjusted to account for the three dependent variables;.05/3=.016.)The analysis of the Ina
46、ppropriate Request Recognition revealed main effects for group,F(1,391)=9.35,p=.002,02=.023,age,F(1,391)=21.05,p=.000,01 2=.051,and time,F(1,391)=113.38,p=.000,02=.225,as well as a Group x Time interaction,F(1,391)=59.24,p=.000,02=.132.The analysis of simple effects indicated that the interaction wa
47、s accounted for by the significant increase in Inappropriate Request Recognition scores for the BST group from Time 1 to Time 2 and no significant change for the control group.The analysis of the Appropriate Request Recognition Teaching personal safety skills Table 2.Means(and Standard Deviations)fo
48、r WIST Recognition and Total Skill Scores by Group at Time 1 and Time 2 Group Time 1 Time 2 Inappropriate Request Recognition(Range 0-3)BST 1.42(1.34)2.57(0.86)Control 1.59(1.36)1.76(1.33)Appropriate Request Recognition(Range 0-3)BST 2.47(0.91)2.64(0.76)Control 2.47(0.98)2.31(1.09)WIST Total Skill(R
49、ange 0-24)BST 4.88(6.23)14.77(7.09)Control 5.01(6.01)6.79(6.84)Note.Ns for BST and control groups were 258 and 141,respectively.809 revealed no main effects,but a significant Group X Time interaction was found,F(1,391)=10.77,p=.001,02=.027.The interaction was accounted for by a significant increase
50、in Appropriate Request Recognition scores following participation in the BST program.It must be noted,however,that this increase made by the BST group was small and only accounted for 3%of the overall variance.The analysis of the Total WIST Skill score revealed main effects for group,F(I,391)=48.03,