Parent-Focused Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

Overview

Journal Prev Sci

Specialty Science

Date 2015 Mar 12

PMID 25757528

Citations 17

Authors

Tamar Mendelson

Elizabeth J Letourneau

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a serious public health issue. Current after-the-fact approaches to treating victims and punishing offenders are not adequate to address a problem of this magnitude; development and rigorous evaluation of CSA prevention strategies are critical. We propose that CSA prevention efforts should target parents of young children. Parents have been neglected as a focus of CSA prevention; they merit attention given their potential to improve children's safety via effective communication and monitoring. This paper provides an overview of current strategies for reducing CSA prevalence and their limitations, presents a rationale for parent-focused CSA prevention, and discusses considerations pertinent to development of an effective parent-focused approach. Parent-focused CSA prevention offers potential as a public health approach to prevention of CSA, and it is time that we devote resources toward developing and studying this important area.

Citing Articles

Universal parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention: A quasi-experimental protocol.

Abourjaily E, Guastaferro K, McElwee K, Connell C PLoS One. 2025; 20(1):e0314459.

PMID: 39820171 PMC: 11737775. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314459.

Family Strengths among Native American Families and Families Living in Poverty: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences.

Mullet N, Waterman E, Edwards K, Simon B, Hopfauf S, Herrington R Fam Relat. 2024; 72(5):2334-2352.

PMID: 39734799 PMC: 11672864. DOI: 10.1111/fare.12906.

Examining Parental Abilities to Recognize Sexual Grooming Behaviors of Child Sexual Abusers.

Steedman L, Jeglic E, Winters G J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2024; 17(2):197-208.

PMID: 38938953 PMC: 11199461. DOI: 10.1007/s40653-023-00599-x.

Adapting a selective parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention curriculum for a universal audience: A pilot study.

Guastaferro K, Abuchaibe V, McCormick K, Bhoja A, Abourjaily E, Melchior M PLoS One. 2024; 19(5):e0302982.

PMID: 38753647 PMC: 11098426. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302982.

Making a Bad Situation Worse: Current and Potential Unintended Consequences of Juvenile Registration for Sexual Offences.

Bosetti R, Fix R Arch Sex Behav. 2024; 53(6):2011-2023.

PMID: 38696089 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-024-02860-2.

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