Abuse Prevention Programs Addressed to Children Have Significant Shortcomings

One popular, and many believe essential, component of child protection policies is a prevention program geared toward children.  In these programs, adults explain to children how to recognize abuse and encourage them to disclose it.  The field started decades ago with the well-known “Good Touch, Bad Touch” training, and today is crowded with all sorts of training.  A recent study looked at 31 papers published in peer-reviewed journals over the past decade, all analyzing child-focused prevention programs, and concluded that most of them have serious flaws.

The first problem that the study identified is that most of them were focused on sexual abuse.  Few discussed the far more common risks of physical abuse or neglect.  The study’s authors also noted the need for more programs that involve parents and are geared toward children with disabilities.

The deepest flaws, however, were that the programs don’t address the very common process of grooming, by which trusted adults gradually acclimate children to sexual abuse.   The advice for a child to disclose abuse to a trusted adult doesn’t address the fact that sometimes the abuser is a trusted adult.  The prevention programs also didn’t address the very complicated emotions that children can experience, in which the warmth of the emotional relationship competes with distress over the sexual component and guilt for not trying to stop it. 

The study authors also expressed concern that the programs potentially increase a child’s guilt by making them responsible for protecting themselves.  The researchers argued for programs that encourage children and give them permission, but do not place responsibility on them for keeping themselves safe.  For example, presentations that give them an opportunity to disclose, and also train teachers and other adults how to respond would be more in line with recent research about how children disclose abuse.  The programs also should help prepare children for potential bad results from their disclosures.

Finally, few of the programs demonstrated much benefits in actually preventing abuse.  Some showed increased awareness among children, but few of the programs had conducted any long-term studies to see if the awareness and knowledge actually changed behavior.  Even those studies looked at no more than 6 months after the presentations.

In short, one of the most-favored components of child protection programs — teaching children how to protect themselves —  has little research supporting its effectiveness.  The programs may increase awareness, but there is no evidence that increased awareness translates into prevention.  In fact, more recent research into how children disclose past abuse raises concerns that current programs actually can cause harm.  We need to find programs that encourage disclosure without placing responsibility on children for their own safety, and help adults know how to respond to those disclosures.