U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Parental Involvement in Child Abuse Prevention Training: What Do They Learn?

NCJ Number
115050
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect, the International Journal Volume: 12 Issue: 4 Dated: (1988) Pages: 543-553
Author(s)
J D Berrick
Date Published
1988
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined the impact of parent education meetings on preschool parents' knowledge of child abuse.
Abstract
Parents were selected from seven preschool sites across California. Parent meetings discussed signs that parents should note in an abused child and assisted parents in recognizing and naming these indicators. The meetings also focused on what parents can do once the abuse has been detected. The evaluation interviews sought to tap parents' knowledge about physical and behavioral signs of abuse through an open-ended question. On both the pretest and posttest, parents were asked what would indicate to them that a child had been sexually abused. Parents were also queried about what actions they would take if one of their children's playmates stated to their child that he/she had been abused by a stranger. Parent education apparently had little effect upon parents' knowledge of the prevalence of child sexual abuse, indicators of abuse, or parents' appropriate response to abuse disclosures. Overall, few parents attended the meetings, and those who did learned very little. Implications of the findings for parent meetings are discussed. 5 figures, 9 references. (Author abstract modified)