The Effects of a Sexual Abuse Prevention Program on the Children's Perceptions of the Risks of Sexual Abuse

성학대 예방 프로그램이 아동의 성학대 위험 지각에 미치는 효과

The present study assessed children's perceptions of risk of sexual abuse before and after participation in a sexual abuse prevention program, and investigated the effects of the sexual abuse prevention program on the children's emotional response. The subjects for this study were 135 3rd and 145 6th graders, attending elementary school in Seoul. Instruments were the Sexual Abuse Situational Risk (Jacobs, Hashima, & Kenning, 1995) and the Children's Emotional Response Questionnaire (Garbarino, 1987). The results of this study were that (1) children's perceptions of the risk of sexual abuse by a stranger decreased, relative to those by familiar persons which increased after the program. Especially, 6th graders had higher perceptions of the likelihood of abuse by familiar persons than 3rd graders. Girls had higher perceptions of risk than boys. (2) Children perceived adults as more dangerous than adolescents both before-and after-program. (3) Children's perceptions of the risk of sexual abuse in public settings decreased, relative to perceptions of risk in private settings which increased after the program. Girls had higher perceptions of the liklihood of abuse in private settings than boys; no significant difference was found by grade. (4) Children's emotional response did not reveal a significant change between pretest and posttests.