Show Me
Parent engagement in prevention of child sexual abuse
Douglas Russell, Dr Sebastian Trew, Lottie Harris, Prof Daryl Higgins, Jessica Dickson (Australian Catholic University); Prof Kerryann Walsh, Rhiannon Smith (Queensland University of Technology)
Bravehearts Foundation through a Westpac grant
To identify rationales, approaches, and barriers and facilitators to parental involvement in child-focused child sexual abuse prevention programs.
Parents are their children’s first teachers and there are long-standing calls for their involvement in child sexual abuse prevention. Prevention programs are often delivered in schools where some involvement by parents is evident (at varying levels of engagement). But there is little research that evaluates the impact or effect of engaging parents on program outcomes.
We conducted a systematic review of studies of programs that involved parents beyond simply asking parents for consent of their child’s participation in the program. The data helped us understand ways that parents are involved in child-focused child sexual abuse prevention programs to increase their effectiveness.
We found that many programs engaged parents, predominantly mothers, through workshops and information evenings. Another common activity was sending home learning activities that children could do with parents. We also found that parent engagementwith programs wasfacilitated by their prior knowledge of child sexual abuse and prevention strategies. Conversely, barriers to parent engagement included: parental time constraints, attitudes of denial of the likelihood of their child experiencing sexual abuse, and attitudes to importance of discussing how to prevent child sexual abuse.
Rationales for parental involvement
Types of parental involvement
Barriers to parent involvement
The burden of child sexual abuse prevention falls disproportionately to females, based on the finding that females are most often involved in prevention programs with younger children of preschool age. More can be done to involve fathers and males in general. However, this is a complex and sensitive issue since child sex offenders are predominantly male.
There are many school-based programs engaging parents in prevention strategies, and parent involvement is on a spectrum from very little to a lot. This suggests the need to evaluate the effect of these approaches on both child and parent outcomes. Future studies could also investigate whether involvement of one or both parents affects program outcomes.
Russell, D. H., Trew, S., Harris, L., Dickson, J., Walsh, K., Higgins, D. J., & Smith, R. (2024). Engaging Parents in Child-Focused Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education Strategies: A Systematic Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380241235895
2021-2023
For more information contact Douglas Russell
We're available 9am–5pm AEDT,
Monday to Friday
If you’ve got a question, our AskACU team has you covered. You can search FAQs, text us, email, live chat, call – whatever works for you.