[Development and evaluation of a program for preventing sexual abuse in the preschool age]

The present study reports on the development and evaluation of an intervention program to prevent sexual abuse in the preschool age. The main aim of the program is to increase the social competencies of preschool children. Starting from critiques at existing prevention programs an intervention adapted at the cognitive abilities of preschool children was developed. The central themes of the program are the abilities to deal with feelings, touches, secrets, saying no, and getting support. The program effects were tested by an experimental study. Subjects were 80 preschool children aged 4 to 6 years. Forty children participated at the program while the other children served as control group. The results show clear increases of knowledge on all program dimensions which were stable over an interval of at least two months. The implications of the results for the use of prevention programs for sexual abuse in the preschool age are evaluated and discussed.