How Do Survivor and Mandatory Reporter Status Correlate with Program Outcomes for an Adult-Focused Child Sexual Abuse...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Psychology
• Social Work

Background:

• Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) prevention training is crucial for public safety.
• Understanding differential impacts of training on various demographics is essential for effective program development.
• Mandatory reporters and CSA survivors represent key populations for prevention efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate group differences and pre-post changes in knowledge, beliefs, and behavior.
• To compare mandatory reporters and CSA survivors regarding their response to a general public CSA prevention training.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory study involving 8,114 participants.
• Analysis of pre- and post-training data on knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors.
• Comparison between mandatory reporters and non-mandatory reporters, and CSA survivors and non-survivors.

Main Results:

• Mandatory reporters and CSA survivors had higher baseline knowledge and preventative behaviors.
• Mandatory reporters maintained higher knowledge post-training; CSA survivors showed fewer knowledge gains.
• Training led to more similar beliefs between mandatory reporters and non-mandatory reporters post-training.
• CSA survivors showed greater increases in belief responsibility and self-efficacy for prevention.

Conclusions:

• Findings inform the development of trauma-informed prevention programming.
• Tailoring interventions may be necessary to maximize impact across different participant groups.
• The study underscores the importance of considering survivor and mandatory reporter status in CSA prevention education.