Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education: Perception and Practices of Parents and Teachers

Abstract

The current study aimed at exploring perceptions and practices of parents and teachers regarding child sexual abuse prevention education at home and in schools. The study was exploratory in nature comprising of two phases. Phase I was the development of topic guides for parents and teachers from existing literature as well as validation. Phase II was the main study. It consisted of 30 in-depth interviews with parents (n = 15, Mothers = 11 , Fathers = 4) and teachers (n = 15) from private as well as public schools. Parents of children more than the age of 3 and less than age of 15 were included. The data was collected using purposive convenient sampling from Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Data analysis provided a number of themes in four key areas; Knowledge (understanding of abuse, risk factors, indicators of sexual abuse and characteristic of perpetrator), Practices (in-direct conduct practices, monitoring and education), Barriers (parent child relationship, diffusion of responsibility, lack of knowledge and negative attitudes towards child sexual abuse prevention education) and Child sexual abuse prevention education (perceived positive impacts, parental involvement, how to deliver and factors to consider). The findings can be utilized by respective authorities for better understanding of parents' and teacher's contribution in deliverance of prevention education, their perspective and concerns to address, for development of culture specific school based child sexual abuse prevention education program