ARTICLE SUMMARY CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION
Evaluation of Safer, Smarter Kids: Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Curriculum for Kindergartners Brown, D. M. (2017). Evaluation of Safer, Smarter Kids: Child sexual abuse prevention curriculum for kindergartners. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 34(3), 213-222. doi: 10.1007/s10560-016-0458-0
Issue
While low disclosure and reporting rates pose challenges in establishing the prevalence of sexual abuse of children, these cases made up approximately 5 percent of the nearly 2400 calls to the Florida Abuse Hotline in 2013.1 Research has found that in victims under age 12, four-year-olds are at highest risk for sexual abuse.2 In 2011, the Florida Legislature enacted the Walk in Their Shoes Act, which included funding for child sexual abuse prevention curriculum to be created by the Lauren’s Kids Foundation. The Safer, Smarter Kids curriculum incorporates multimodal content delivery (e.g., modeling videos, roleplaying, interactive activities) to help children identify risky situations and practice self-protection. Lessons are repeated and parental involvement can be incorporated through complementary at-home activities. The Lauren’s Kids Foundation contracted with the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence to conduct an evaluation of the impact of Safer, Smarter Kids on kindergarten students’ knowledge of major curriculum concepts using a pre-test/post-test design.
Method Recruitment
The Lauren’s Kids Foundation reached out to school districts that already implemented another sexual abuse prevention program for 1st through 5th grade students to participate in the pilot study. Four Florida school districts (i.e., Franklin, Miami-Dade, Okaloosa, and Pasco Counties) agreed to participate, and teachers or counselors from those districts volunteered to administer the curriculum to students and conduct the evaluation. These individuals, representing 54 kindergarten classrooms, received training from the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence detailing the pilot project’s objectives, data collection, demonstrations, and responsibilities. Participants received “Teachers’ Testing Packets” (p. 215), which contained all necessary materials. All students received the curriculum over the course of six weeks, but only those whose parents provided consent completed the pre- and post-test measures. The final analytic sample was 1169 kindergarteners who attended all six lessons and had completed both the pre- and post-tests. Measures and Data Collection
Teachers and counselors administered 11-item pre- and posttests individually to students (before initial curriculum instruction began and again within 30 days of the final lesson, respectively). The instrument was designed to assess the knowledge attainment regarding five of the six areas of focus of the Safer, Smarter Kids curriculum: “understanding safety rules, introducing the concept of a stranger versus a trusted grown-up ‘buddy,’ body boundaries, recognizing safe versus unsafe secrets and knowing the difference between tattling and reporting” (p. 216). The instrument items were close-ended and included verbal scenarios and illustrations of adults and children. Students earned one point for each correct response, for a maximum of 11 points. “I don’t know” and “unsure” response options were available. Contextual data were also collected on the number of years of experience the curriculum teacher had with teaching kindergarten.
CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION: Best practices for preventing child maltreatment and neglect.
Findings
Students in the sample were about six years old. Over half were Hispanic (any race, 72.9%), and slightly more than half were male (53%). Approximately half of those delivering the curriculum (47.6%) had no experience teaching kindergarteners. There were notable geographic and demographic differences between school districts, and of the total sample, Hispanic children were overrepresented relative to Florida’s Hispanic population. Mean pre-test and post-test scores were 3.86 (SD = 2.4) and 6.84 (SD = 2.97), respectively. A paired samples t-test indicated a significant difference in total scores. Knowledge attainment of students increased 77 percent at post-test. The effect size (d = 1.09) is considered large.3 While race significantly predicted mean change in score, it accounted for less than 2 percent of the variability. Gender and teacher’s experience did not impact mean change in score.
Implications
Safer, Smarter Kids was found to be effective in teaching kindergarten students about sexual abuse, self-protection techniques, and how to report abuse to responsible adults. Notably, only about one-quarter of participants correctly identified “mouth” as a private part. The author suggests exploring options to address this, such as removing those items or encouraging teachers to emphasize this concept during curriculum delivery. Additionally, given the high prevalence of curriculum instructors that had no experience teaching kindergarteners, the author suggests future evaluations reword this data collection item to “years of experience working with kindergarten students” to better represent relevant roles beyond teachers (e.g., guidance counselors, school health officials; p. 218). The author noted several significant limitations to the study, such as the use of a convenience sample, lack of standard instruction delivery format, and selection bias. The researcher suggests regional training for curriculum facilitators to ensure that students across the state are receiving instruction per the curriculum design. Moreover, parent participation outside of the classroom was not accounted for regarding the knowledge attainment of students. Future evaluations should implement a statewide, randomized control trial and incorporate teacher and parent feedback. Additionally, focus groups with teachers, administrators, curriculum presenters and parents could provide valuable data regarding the instrument and curriculum implementation process.
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau. (2015). Child maltreatment 2013. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research/child-maltreatment. Snyder, H. (2000). Sexual assault of young children as reported to law enforcement: Victim, incident and offender characteristics. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Association.
CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION: Best practices for preventing child maltreatment and neglect.