Lexington Books Description: Gilbert and his associates describe and report on the results of a study of seven preschool child sexual abuse programs being used in California. Several years ago, California mandated the provision of child sexual abuse prevention programs directed at preschool children. Using a variety of methods and instruments, Gilbert assessed the effectiveness and effects of such programs on preschool children's ability to learn the skills and concepts taught by such programs, as well as their ability to implement prevention skills. He also assessed the impact of the program on teachers and parents. Gilbert first reviewed the child sexual abuse prevention (CSAP) programs included in the study, finding most to be feelings-based programs; that is, relying on children's sense of when touch was appropriate or inappropriate. He notes that most programs promote an empowerment perspective and the promotion of children's rights. He questions the appropriateness of such content in light of the high potential for the approach to be first, in conflict with the developmental needs of young children, and second, inconsistent with disparate and highly personal norms of intimate contact within American families. Essentially, Gilbert found that CSAP programs were largely ineffective in teaching young children about sexual abuse or its prevention. Children had great difficulty learning and using the concepts presented in the program. Gilbert provides a brief review of some literature on child development in the areas of cognitive, social/emotional, and moral development. He then draws upon that information to explain the results he obtained. Gilbert further found that the programs may have some negative effects. This included, for example, an increase in the number of children who, subsequent to program participation, viewed activities such as tickling or bathing as increasingly negative. Gilbert additionally found low rates of parent participation as well as low rates of attitude and information change as a result of parent participation in the parent sessions. Gilbert concludes that CSAP programs directed at children may
represent a misallocation of resources because of two factors. First, the
results of his study indicate that children were not substantially better
prepared to protect themselves in sexually abusive situations, and may indeed
have experienced negative effects from exposure to the program. Second, Gilbert
asks the broader questions of whether it is even appropriate to expect preschool
children to participate in their own protection. As Gilbert notes in Chapter 8:
"In a world where we do not allow four year olds to cross the street alone,
should they be expected to evaluate adult behavior and protect themselves from
abuse?" (p. 133). Comments: Preschool child sexual abuse prevention programs efforts have remained controversial, a controversy which is further fueled by Gilbert's book. Subsequent to the publication of his findings, California's Office of Child Abuse Prevention imposed a moratorium on providing CSAP programs to preschool children. Tremendous political pressure was exerted by those who have a direct and vested interest, either economically or philosophically, in CSAP programming directed at preschool children. Several months later the ban was removed, in what Gilbert notes was "a triumph of politics over reason that ill-serves the children's interests" (postscript). This book has focused and highlighted the debate on one of the most controversial aspects of the child sexual abuse problem — direct instruction in its prevention provided to children of all ages. Gilbert's study was not the first to find fault with preschool CSAP programs. It was, however, the first to find fault with nearly all the major programs being used. Previous investigations found difficulties with individual commercial programs or programs designed by the research investigators themselves. Consequently, any conclusions drawn were limited to the effects of the particular program on what was usually a select and small sample. Promoters of CSAP programs directed at preschool children could claim that such results did not apply to their program, and that their programs were superior. They also frequently produced evaluation studies they had conducted on their own programs as justification for the program (despite severe design flaws in most such studies). Gilbert, however, conducted a global evaluation of seven programs, most of which were widely used CSAP programs. While some have criticized Gilbert in that it is not possible to factor out the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of any individual program as a result of the design he used, such criticisms either miss the point or are attempting to introduce a red herring into the debate. Gilbert's intent was not to conduct a comparative analysis of individual programs, but rather to investigate the effectiveness of the general approach of attempting to provide instruction in child sexual abuse to preschool children. It is the results obtained based on this premise which are the most salient and at the same time the most threatening to CSAP promoters. Research with preschool children is extremely difficult because of problems in assessing knowledge acquisition with children who have limited language capabilities. Many of the assessment compromises made by Gilbert in his attempt to obtain some measure of what these children were learning may have affected the accuracy of his results. Thus, his results must be viewed cautiously. However, perhaps we should be asking the question: If it is so difficult to assess the impact of CSAP programs on children because of their limited language and cognitive development, is it not also reasonable to assume that those same limitations will impair children's ability to learn accurately and effectively, recall, and then implement the very knowledge we are trying to measure? Finally, Gilbert raises the most salient point when he rhetorically asks whether we should be expecting preschoolers to participate in their own protection. He asks, "At a time in their lives when it is important to have a sense of trust that parents and care givers will nurture and protect them, should children be taught that they must evaluate the boundaries of appropriate adult behavior? (p. 123). This book dares to question what has been in recent years unquestionable — the importance of teaching young children about sexual abuse — and provides empirical support for its conclusions. Furthermore, those conclusions are further explicated based on a valid and widely accepted theoretical perspective of child development. For these reasons, the work of Gilbert and his associates is worthy reading and highly recommended. Reviewed by James J. Krivacska, Educational Program Consultants, 51 Cleveland Avenue, Milltown, NJ 08850.
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