The Touch Discrimination Component of Sexual Abuse Prevention Training: Unanticipated Positive Consequences

The potential negative impact of sexual abuse prevention programs on children remains a central concern in the field of sexual abuse prevention. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of two prevention programs in improving children's abilities to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate types of touching. Two hundred sixty-four kindergarten through third-grade children from three public schools in San Diego were randomly assigned by classroom to one of three treatments: (1) a role-play-based sexual abuse prevention program, (2) a multimedia child abuse prevention program, or (3) a control group receiving fire prevention training. The results indicated greater pre- to posttest improvement for the role-play group than for the control group on total correct touch discriminations. Although there is concern that sexual abuse prevention programs may make children suspicious of appropriate touch, the present study found children in the role-play group better able to discriminate appropriate touch after training than before. The results are discussed in light of current findings in the child sexual abuse prevention literature.