NCJ Number
164018
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 20 Issue: 9 Dated: (September 1996) Pages: 821-832
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study employed a posttest-only control group design to assess the effects of a victimization prevention program known as Project TRUST (Teaching Reading Using Students and Theater) on elementary school student knowledge of general prevention concepts, knowledge of difficult-to-acquire prevention concepts, anxiety, and reporting of abuse; a selected subgroup of experimental subjects was also assessed for retention of acquired concepts over time.
Abstract
The play Touch was used as the victimization prevention intervention in the study. The study sample consisted of 1,269 children, 658 in the experimental group and 611 in the control group, who were enrolled in grades 1 to 6 in four public schools in a midwestern city during the 1994-1995 academic year. Instruments used to assess elementary school student outcomes included the Children's Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire-Revised, the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, and the Maltreatment Disclosure Report Form. Students exposed to Project TRUST demonstrated significantly greater knowledge of maltreatment prevention information, as well as difficult-to-acquire concepts, than control group students. A 3-month delayed reassessment of the experimental group showed no loss in acquired prevention information. No differences in anxiety scores existed between experimental and control groups. First-time student abuse disclosures were greater in the experimental group than in the control group. Findings support the effectiveness of Project TRUST as a strategy to increase prevention knowledge and generate abuse disclosures without creating student anxiety. Recommendations for improving Project TRUST and for additional research are offered. 42 references, 5 tables, and 1 figure