Practice makes perfect? The role of participant modeling in sexual abuse prevention programs.

We tested the prediction that a sexual abuse prevention program that included participant modeling (PM) would result in superior skill acquisition compared with a symbolic modeling (SM) program. Twenty-six kindergarten children were assigned to one of the two programs after being matched for initial skill level. The PM program taught self-protective skills through modeling and active rehearsal; the SM program taught the same skills, but the children watched as skills were modeled by the experimenter. Results provided evidence for the greater efficacy of PM relative to SM for the learning of personal safety skills and, thus, support the inclusion of active rehearsal in prevention programs for young children. In response to the high incidence of sexual abuse among children (National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, 1985), many prevention programs aimed at known-offende r abuse have been developed for implementation in school systems. As a result of their consistent and longitudinal contact with children and families, schools appear to be the most promising institution for the delivery of preventive instruction (Brassard, Tyler, & Kehle, 1983). A number of books, plays, films, small-group discussions, and structured curricula are being promoted for school usage (see reviews by Conte, Rosen, & Saperstein, 1986; Wurtele, in press). Although school-based prevention programs have been widely implemented, little effort has been made to systematicall y evaluate what children learn and which teaching method is most effective or to determine if knowledge and skill gains are retained over time. Recently, we compared the effectiveness of the film Touch (Illusion Theater Company & Media Ventures, 1984) with a control presentation (Saslawsky & Wurtele, 1986) and, subsequently, with a multifaceted behavioral skills training (BST) package designed to teach children self-protective skills (Wurtele, Saslawsky, Miller, Marrs, & Britcher, 1986). Results from this latter study indicated that children in the BST group who