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Abstract

The following is an extract from a research paper entitled Child Abuse - Promoting Prevention by Imogen Howse. The full report can be requested from the Child-Safe team.

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Introduction

The physical, sexual and emotional abuse of young people is an important public health issue. The present study focuses on a written media based child abuse prevention pack designed to increase child abuse knowledge and encourage the use of child protective behaviours within organisations offering extra-curricula activities for young people. The effectiveness of two alternative methods of delivering the child protection message are examined.

Method

982 sports, leisure, religious and childcare organisations within two adjacent districts in the South West of England were contacted. A longitudinal, comparative, experimental design was employed to assess (via questionnaire) changes in knowledge and child protective behaviours within these organisations over the period of 1 year. After 1 year, of the 128 organisations that responded; 48 had received the written media based intervention within a seminar setting, 31 had received the intervention without an explanatory seminar, and 49 had not received the intervention.

Findings

Organisations that received the written media based intervention in conjunction with an explanatory seminar were more likely to show increased child abuse knowledge 1 year later than organisations that received the intervention without the explanatory seminar. Organisations that received the written media based intervention in conjunction with an explanatory seminar were also more likely to show an increase in the number of child protective behaviours within the organisation 1 year later than organisations that received the written media based intervention without the seminar. No significant differences were found in either child abuse knowledge or child abuse protection behaviours between organisations receiving the written media based intervention without the seminar and organisations within the comparison group that received no specific intervention.

Conclusions

To improve child abuse knowledge and increase child protective behaviours within organisations offering extra-curricula activities to young people it is more effective to deliver a written media based intervention via an interactive explanatory seminar than to distribute the intervention without explanatory seminar.

Discussion

Implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future promotion activities discussed with reference to health promotion and behavioural change literature.

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