Parental involvement in sexual abuse prevention education

Parental knowledge of child sexual abuse and interest in educating themselves and their children for primary prevention was studied. Fifty-one mothers and 50 fathers of preschool and day-care center children were interviewed. Parents wanted to be the primary educators of their child, but demonstrated a lack of knowledge about important sexual abuse issues and planned to discuss only the least threatening topics. Mothers and fathers obtained most of their information about sexual abuse from the media. However, parents were open to numerous methods and referral sources for prevention education. One dependent variable, sex of parent, showed significant differences on sources of sexual abuse information; preferred educators for their children; number and types of topics acceptable for children to learn about at preschool ages or other times; the number of topics parents planned to discuss; sources parents would respond to most for a parent program; and factors in parent's decision to attend parent programs. There were no significant differences based upon the sex of the child and no significant interaction effects between sex of parent and sex of child. Further research on parent motivation for their own education and the education of their children is indicated.