Effective Components of School Based Prevention Programs for Child Abuse: A Meta Analytic Review

Course overview

This course is based upon material published in the clinical child and family psychology review and is available as an open-access article. School-based programs seem promising for child abuse prevention. However, research mainly focused on sexual child abuse, and knowledge is lacking on how individual program components contribute to the effectiveness of school-based prevention programs for any form of child abuse. This study aimed to examine the overall effect of these school-based programs on (a) children's child abuse-related knowledge and (b) self-protection skills by conducting two three-level meta-analyses. Furthermore, moderator analyses were performed to identify how program components and delivery techniques were associated with effectiveness. A literature search yielded 34 studies (158 effect sizes; N = 11,798) examining knowledge of child abuse and 22 studies (99 effect sizes; N = 7804) examining self-protection skills. A significant overall effect was found of school-based programs on both knowledge (d=0.572, 95% CI [0.408, 0.737], p less than 0.001) and self-protection skills (d=0.528, 95% CI [0.262, 0.794], p less than 0.001). The results of the first meta-analysis on children's child abuse knowledge suggest that program effects were larger in programs addressing social-emotional skills of children (d = 0.909 for programs with this component versus d = 0.489 for programs without this component) and self-blame (d = 0.776 versus d = 0.412), and when puppets (d = 1.096 versus d = 0.500) and games or quizzes (d= 0.966 versus d = 0.494) were used. The second meta-analysis on children's self-protection skills revealed that no individual components or techniques were associated with increased effectiveness. Several other study and program characteristics did moderate the overall effects and are discussed. In general, school-based prevention programs show positive effects on both knowledge and self-protection skills, and the results imply that program effectiveness can be improved by implementing specific components and techniques. This course on child abuse is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of child abuse. The course material includes a literature review of school-based programs and it may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: Gubbels, van der Put, Stams, Assink Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding child abuse. Specifically, a professional will: Describe children's self-protection skills and what components, if any, are seen as being more effective Identify components of school-based programs aimed at preventing child abuse Recognize the efficacy of school-based programs in preventing or identifying child abuse Citation: Gubbels, J., van der Put, C. E., Stams, G. J. J., & Assink, M. (2021). Effective components of school-based prevention programs for child abuse: a meta-analytic review. Clinical child and family psychology review, 24(3), 553-578.