Enhancing parent-child communication about sexual abuse: a pilot study

Area of Science:

• Childhood development
• Public health interventions
• Psychology of prevention

Background:

• Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains a significant concern for child safety.
• Effective strategies for empowering parents to discuss CSA with young children are crucial.
• Existing prevention programs often lack robust methods for increasing parent-child communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a specific educational video, "What Do I Say Now?", on parent-child discussions about CSA.
• To assess whether the video increases parents' intentions and actual communication behaviors regarding CSA prevention.
• To explore the role of threat and coping appraisal components of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) in this context.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 45 parents of children aged 2-6 years.
• Intervention group received a CSA prevention workshop (including the video); control group received a home safety workshop.
• Post-test measures assessed threat/coping appraisals and intentions; follow-up interviews assessed communication frequency.

Main Results:

• Parents in the CSA workshop group reported significantly higher intentions to discuss CSA with their children compared to the control group.
• Follow-up data confirmed significantly more CSA discussions in the intervention group.
• Coping appraisal components of PMT were significantly associated with parents' intentions to discuss CSA.

Conclusions:

• The educational video intervention demonstrates preliminary effectiveness in promoting parent-child communication about CSA.
• Findings support the utility of Protection Motivation Theory's coping appraisal components in understanding prevention behaviors.
• The study suggests that involving parents through educational interventions can enhance CSA prevention efforts.