Students’ experience of Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) education on child protection

Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) is a program in the United States responding to the need in college and graduate programs for education on child maltreatment. As of this writing, 92 colleges and universities are teaching specialized CAST courses in 30 states, of which 78 have multi-course CAST certificate or minor programs. This article uses mixed methods to assess the nature of students’ experience of CAST. The authors gathered data from students in twenty-six CAST courses in eleven colleges and universities in one state across five semesters during 2019–2021. A total of 200 CAST students participated in a post-course survey and six CAST graduates or graduating seniors were interviewed. On Likert-scaled items, a large majority of CAST students reported a positive experience with their CAST course and CAST program. Frequent enthusiastic descriptions of CAST in open-ended survey items and the interviews provided further evidence of students’ positive experience with CAST. CAST raised their consciousness about the reality of child maltreatment and taught them to recognize and respond to the signs of child maltreatment. Students reported that CAST courses could be emotionally challenging, but dealing with these challenges yielded a valuable experience that they recommended to other students. Students appreciated the realistic child protection simulations featured in many CAST courses. These results suggest the promise of CAST in enhancing students’ learning and helping prepare them to respond compassionately and effectively to child maltreatment as child-serving graduates.