Study of preventive health education as an intervention in child sexual abuse

The purpose of this study was to determine if a preventive health education program about sex abuse would have a positive impact upon the attitudes and knowledge of hospitalized, emotionally-disturbed children in areas of sex abuse as indicated by attitudinal and knowledge surveys on pre- and posttests. Another purpose was to determine if the biographical questionnaire would indicate a higher incidence of sex abuse than documented in the history of hospitalized emotionally-disturbed children. Using paired t -tests, the pre- and posttests reflected that the 'You're In Charge' program did have a positive impact upon the knowledge base of hospitalized, emotionally-disturbed children about sex abuse, and that there was no significant impact on the attitudes of hospitalized, emotionally-disturbed children by measures of Pearson's correlation coefficient. The biographical questionnaire did not indicate a higher incidence of sex abuse as compared with documented sex abuse in the patient's history.