A recent longitudinal study published in Child Maltreatment journal found a link between reduced rates of child sexual abuse (CSA) and Prevent Child Abuse Vermont’s method, instituted across 11 years, of training adults to prevent it. The researchers that collaborated with Prevent Child Abuse Vermont (PCAVT) in the research are from Florida International University and the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins. The study spans one year prior to the legislative mandate for child sexual abuse prevention education in Vermont schools, pre-K to 12th grade, to one year prior to the pandemic (2008-2019). Researchers analyzed county level data on number of trainings and rates of CSA.
For all training topics (13 in total), additional trainings resulted in corresponding decreases in cases of substantiated child sexual abuse. Notably, on average for high CSA counties compared to low CSA counties, the completion of two trainings was associated with one fewer case of CSA. Most studies to date have only looked at how trainings affected attitudes and skills immediately after training, with little information on whether this prevented instances. Primary prevention has been elusive to measure, given that measuring something not happening can be challenging. The findings of this research demonstrate that long term efforts across more than a decade have an impact on saving individual children from harm and reducing overall prevalence in a state. It indicates that the sharp decreases that Vermont has seen in CSA cases (number of victims down 72% since 1992 and children who sexually harm other children down 76 % since 1990) are not mere coincidence.
Several training topics performed very well in preventing this type of trauma. The PCAVT topic, Informed Supervision of Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended (IJS) was associated with a decrease of seven cases when one additional training was provided. Another topic, Overcoming Barriers to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse (OBP) was associated with a decrease of two cases for each training provided. Lastly, three additional trainings in Nurturing Healthy Sexual Development (NHSD) corresponded to one fewer case.
With the push to evaluate CSA efforts ongoing and our understanding of what works evolving, it is important to utilize programs that have been shown to be effective. Fortunately, PCAVT believes in the Training of Trainer model recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which means that communities can learn how to implement this method as part of their individual community prevention strategy. Already, these trainings are being utilized in 34 states and by many Prevent Child Abuse America chapters. Reach out if you wish to register for a virtual Training of Trainers event or would like to read more about PCAVT’s prevention programs.