Teaching Prevention Skills to Children:

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a prevention program implemented by parents in the home. Sexual abuse prevention skills were assessed through children's responses to verbally presented descriptions of sexual abuse situations. Abduction prevention skills were assessed through children's responses to verbal descriptions and role-plays of abduction situations. One week and two or four month in situ assessment probes were also conducted. Nine children participated; four 4-5 year olds and five 6-7 year olds. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used with an ABC treatment presentation involving baseline, parent-mediated training, and expert training by research assistants. Parents provided training with the Red Flag Green Flag Prevention program modified to include instructions for implementation at home. Following this phase, the same training program was implemented by research assistants. Results showed that parents were ineffective in training their children. Research assistants then effectively generated the abduction prevention skills but were less successful in training sexual abuse prevention skills. Results also showed poor correspondence between subjects' verbal reports and their actual behavior. Finally, a follow-up questionnaire indicated that parents were satisfied with the study and that the participants developed no emotional or behavioral side effects. Conclusions are discussed and further research is suggested.