Citation

Elfreich MR, Stevenson MC, Sisson C, Winstead AP, Parmenter KM. Child Maltreat. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

The University of Evansville, Evansville, IN, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077559519874884

PMID

31526041

Abstract

Although abuse prevention programs have proliferated, little research has explored the direct effects of such programs on actual child sexual abuse disclosure rates, and no research has explored the effects of such programs on child sexual abuse substantiation. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the present research reflects an exploration of the effects of exposure to the Think First and Stay Safe™ abuse prevention program on abuse disclosure rates of 319 children who underwent a child forensic interview within 2015-2018 in a Midwestern child advocacy center. Supporting our mediational hypotheses, children exposed (vs. not exposed) to the Think First and Stay Safe™ program were significantly more likely to disclose abuse during the forensic interview, which in turn predicted significantly increased abuse substantiation likelihood.

Language: en

Keywords

child sexual abuse; child sexual abuse prevention programs; disclosure; program assessment; substantiation