A Parent-focused Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program: Development, Acceptability, and Feasibility.

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Public Health Interventions
• Parent Education

Background:

• Child sexual abuse (CSA) impacts thousands of children annually in the U.S.
• Existing prevention strategies for CSA have limitations, particularly in engaging parents.
• Parent education (PE) programs effectively reduce child physical abuse and neglect, but none specifically address CSA risk factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a brief parent education module specifically targeting child sexual abuse risk factors.
• To create an adaptable module that can be integrated into existing PE programs for sustainability and wider reach.

Main Methods:

• A three-phase approach was employed: curriculum development, content refinement with psychometric evaluation of a measurement tool, and an acceptability/feasibility pilot.
• The process involved iterative development, refinement, and piloting to inform subsequent research phases.
• Detailed procedures are provided for intervention scientists aiming to develop similar add-on modules.

Main Results:

• The iterative development process yielded a refined curriculum and validated measurement tool.
• Pilot testing demonstrated the acceptability and feasibility of the developed module.
• The study successfully created a brief module designed for integration into existing parent education frameworks.

Conclusions:

• A novel parent education module has been developed to address child sexual abuse prevention.
• The module is designed for seamless integration into existing evidence-based PE programs.
• The effectiveness of this additive intervention approach will be assessed in a future randomized controlled trial.