Developmental issues in young children's learning of sexual abuse prevention concepts

This research is an item analysis of a measure of knowledge of sexual abuse prevention concepts, the Children's Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire (C.K.A.Q.), which was utilized in an evaluation of an elementary school program. The literature review highlights developmental theories that distinguish between children in Grades 1, 3, and 6 (N = 111). These theories may explain the obtained differences in children of various ages in learning core prevention concepts. The findings are of interest in three ways: inspection of differences in the ease with which the children of each age group responded to specific items even before seeing a prevention program; identification of items in which there was significant improvement after the children participated in the prevention program; and evidence to suggest that children of different ages responded differentially to certain prevention concepts. The implications for the development, presentation and evaluation of child abuse prevention programs are discussed.