Evaluation of a third grade sexual abuse curriculum

Abstract

This paper presents results from a third grade sexual abuse prevention program. A 24-item questionnaire was administered as a pretest and post-test to an experimental group (n = 236) and a control group (n = 195) of third grade students. Those receiving the sexual abuse prevention program significantly increased their sexual abuse knowledge scores from pretest to post-test. In addition, differences in knowledge were significantly higher in the experimental compared to the control group. Students who received the sexual abuse curriculum significantly improved from pretest to post-test on their behavioral intention scores. Results from this evaluation indicated a modest improvement can be obtained through use of this two-hour sexual abuse prevention curriculum.