A Study on the Effects of a Prevention Program on Preschool Children’s Knowledge of Primary Prevention Strategies for Child Sexual Abuse

Regardless of country, nationality, or social class, child sexual abuse is an alarming problem that affects everyone. Young children are more likely to experience sexual abuse than children of any other age group because they lack the awareness of danger and the ability to defend themselves. Programs to raise young children’s awareness of child sexual abuse have been employed in previous research across the world, and those studies have shown how effective these programs are in implementing so. There were very few studies done with that age group, hence the current study tries to investigate the efficacy of those programs for preschool-aged children in Sri Lanka. In order to examine children’s understanding of primary preventive strategies in the context of child sexual abuse, a quantitative study was done in the Matara District of the Southern Province of Sri Lanka with 104 participants selected through the convenient method of sampling. In the pre-test and post-test, data were acquired using child-friendly story cards. The investigation, which employed paired sample t-tests and mean comparisons, revealed that “child sexual abuse prevention” programs can considerably raise preschool children’s understanding of the primary prevention strategies and their awareness of how to prevent child sexual abuse. The study’s conclusions exemplify how child protection procedures and interventions centered on children, families, communities, and governments can be strengthened.