Schools' readiness for child sexual abuse prevention education: Preliminary scale development using a Delphi method

Area of Science:

• Childhood education
• Public health
• Organizational psychology

Background:

• Child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention in schools requires assessing organizational readiness.
• Existing instruments may not adequately capture the multifaceted nature of school preparedness for CSA prevention education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To collaboratively design and develop a new instrument to assess schools' readiness for school-based child sexual abuse prevention education.

Main Methods:

• A Delphi method involving 24 experts in round 1 and 13 in round 2 was used to refine an initial 81-item pool.
• Expert feedback focused on item importance, clarity, and relevance, leading to item reduction and refinement.
• The resulting 56-item instrument, the SR-CSAPE, was pilot tested with school staff.

Main Results:

• The initial item pool was based on Wiener's Organizational Readiness for Change theory, comprising five sub-scales.
• The Delphi process reduced the instrument to 56 items across five construct sub-scales: contextual factors, informational assessment, change valence, change commitment, and change efficacy.
• Pilot testing confirmed the feasibility of the SR-CSAPE, with minor adjustments to demographic items.

Conclusions:

• The SR-CSAPE is a newly developed 56-item scale designed to identify key organizational dimensions of school preparedness for CSA prevention education.
• Expert consensus guided the development of the SR-CSAPE, ensuring relevance and comprehensiveness.
• Future research is needed to determine the psychometric properties of the SR-CSAPE.