Examining the Effectiveness of the Abuse Prevention Intervention Program for the Parents of Primary School Students
Articles > Article · 2025
Authors: Türkan YILMAZ IRMAK, Eda Durmaz, Seda Sapmaz Yurtsever
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Buca Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, National Refreed University Journal, National, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM), 2025, pp 34-60
DOI: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/deubefd/issue/91061/1422386
Summary
<p>Experiences of sexual abuse in childhood have devastating effects on the child's physiological and psychological health, as well as negative consequences that carry over into adult life. Children who are exposed to sexual abuse have to cope with negativities such as shame, guilt and depression, and experience significant difficulties in terms of mental, social, sexual and interpersonal functioning in adult life. The most effective intervention in preventing all these negative consequences is prevention programmes implemented in early childhood. Child sexual abuse prevention programmes are often carried out for children in schools. However, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, children could not attend schools face-toface. Therefore, in this study, it was aimed to develop a 2-hour prevention programme aiming to increase children's knowledge about body boundaries and different touches by reaching parents online and to examine its effectiveness. The study group consisted of 41 primary school 1st grade students (X̅ age= 6.78, SD= .42). In this study, which was planned with a 2 × 2 factorial research design with 21 children in the training group and 20 children in the control group, the ‘Skills for Protection from Abuse Form’ and ‘Child Knowledge Inventory’ measurement tools were applied as pretest and posttest to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. The training content was conveyed to the children through their parents. The prepared training content was first given online to the parents in the training group and the effect of the personal safety training conveyed to the children by their parents was analysed through the answers given by the children. The findings showed that, compared to the control group, the knowledge and skills of children who were trained by their parents to protect themselves from sexual abuse increased. In addition, the parents who participated in the study were asked about their opinions on the training programme, and it was seen that they found the training programme adequate and understandable and that the parents' ability to provide information appropriate to the level of the child increased. </p><p>Keywords: Child sexual abuse, sexual abuse prevention, parent education </p>