Assessment of Effectiveness of School-Based Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs: A Meta-Analysis

The sexual abuse of the child is a wide-ranging and complex problem with physical, emotional and psychological consequences, with social, moral, cultural and legal dimensions, and when the prevalence rates are analyzed, it is seen that it is a serious problem for all societies. One of the most common strategies used to prevent child sexual abuse is school-based initiatives. So, the purpose of this integrative literature review is to systematically evaluate the evidence of the effectiveness of school-based child sexual abuse prevention programs. In this context, the current study includes 22 articles that meet the criteria for inclusion. The Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) statistical program was used to calculate the effect sizes of the studies included in the meta-analysis. The mean, standard deviation, sample size, p, t, or f value data reported in the primary studies were used to calculate the effect sizes of the studies included in the meta-analysis. As a result of the analyzes carried out within the scope of the study, it was concluded that school-based education practices aimed at preventing child sexual abuse are highly effective, and that after the prevention programs, the knowledge and skill levels of the children increased widely and these increases were statistically significant. As a result, it can be said that the knowledge and self-protection skills of children can be increased by participating in school-based sexual abuse prevention programs.