Abuse Awareness for Parents with Children : 2014

Friday, December 12, 2014

Final Paper Fall Semester

Running head: CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 1

Macro Group Assignment

Contextualizing the Problem

Child Sexual Abuse Awareness and Prevention

Katie Bingham

Laurel Mallonee

Cameron Cox

Diana Ballard

Ian Hancock

Social Justice, Human Rights and Macro Social Work Practice

December 12, 2014

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 2

Issue/Problem

Child sexual abuse is a nation-wide problem. It is insidious because close to eighty-nine

percent of the abuse that takes place is from a known perpetrator. The State of Utah, in the 2014

Legislative session passed House Bill 286 with new legislation mandating that the education

system provide Child Sex Abuse Prevention Programs in the schools

(H.B. 286 Child Sex Abuse Prevention, 2014 General Session). This was a huge victory for

advocates of Child Abuse Prevention. However, the community still lacks education and

awareness connecting the prevention piece to the home environment. According to Prevent Child

Abuse Utah, 4 out of 5 girls and 4 out of 6 boys are abused by the time that they turn 18. Almost

90% of the perpetrators are someone that the child knows.

Although having educational programs in the schools is an incredible step, it is not

enough. According to the CDC, it is important for parents to play an active role in the prevention

of child sex abuse. ” You may feel uncomfortable discussing sexuality with your kids, but it's

important… Find out what your school teaches. (CDC, 2007).

Child sexual abuse awareness and prevention is a widespread issue that affects society as

a whole, across all cultures and generations. The purpose of our group is to focus on child sexual

abuse education for the parents of children ages 0-17. The education of parents regarding child

sexual abuse awareness and prevention will empower parents and children, while focusing on the

open communication, trust, and respect needed to accomplish the goal of safe, happy, and

emotionally balanced children. Parents are very affected by the issue of child sexual abuse

awareness and prevention, because they are generally the closest, most trusted, and most

accessible source of information for their children. An educational training for parents would be

applicable, because it was found that parents’ knowledge of sexual abuse symptoms is limited. It

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 3

is advantageous for parents to be aware that warnings signs of child sexual abuse include

medical symptoms, unusual sexual behavior, and unusual sexual knowledge (Babatsikos, 2010,

p. 118). Parents were reluctant to discuss child sexual abuse with their children because many

were concerned about scaring them (Walsh & Brandon, 2012, p. 739). Parents also felt that they

lacked adequate awareness, knowledge, vocabulary, and material to confidently and effectively

talk to their children about this sensitive issue. Beginning the discussion early is beneficial

because it builds confidence and an open and trusting dialogue between parents and children

regarding sexual abuse and personal safety.

Causes of the Issue

Prevent Child Abuse Utah has found that parents are resistant to receiving information or

education around child sexual abuse in the venues they have tried. At this point, we are unsure

about the particular reasons that parents have this resistant attitude or what venues are successful.

While there is currently a fair amount of research on the benefits of parental involvement in a

child’s education of sexual abuse, there is very little on what strategies will engage parents or

why they are resistant (Wurtele 2009). Often schools or community agencies will offer

workshops, information booths, etc. to educate parents about child abuse, similar to the

experience of Prevent Child Abuse Utah, but parents do not seem to have a desire to approach

this topic or get the information that is available. As a group we have created a survey with

Prevent Child Abuse Utah that assesses parents’ existing knowledge and attitudes about child

sexual abuse education. There is not much in the literature regarding the topic, but a few smaller

studies have been done that may help us understand why some parents have this attitude.

Several studies have consistently shown that the majority of parents are willing to talk

about sexual abuse with their children, but they think they have correct and adequate information

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 4

to protect the child when they do not. For instance, some parents will talk about “stranger

danger”, and emphasize the idea that it is almost always strangers to watch out for. Few talk

about or are aware of the fact that most perpetrators of sexual abuse are by familiar figures in the

childrens’ lives. Parents may also tell the children that they only need to tell one person about

the abuse, when often the first person they tell does not believe them (Wurtele 2010).

Other possible reasons include “children perceived to be too young to understand

(certainly fathers felt this way), not wanting to frighten their children, and a lack of knowledge,

vocabulary and materials” (Walsh 2012). Some parents have reported that they simply don’t

have the resources to talk about sexual abuse with their children. Often, parents are getting their

information from the media which tends to display the more dramatic cases of abuse and gives

inaccurate information. Many parents have said in studies that they don’t believe their children

are at a very high risk for experiencing child abuse, so they do not feel that discussion of the

topic is necessary. Other parents have expressed concern that any discussion of sexual abuse

will lead to their children having “too much knowledge” about sex. (Wurtele 2010).

In a small study done in Australia, researchers conducted focus groups of parents, most

often mothers, of small children regarding their attitudes toward education in the schools. Many

of the parents related how their personal education of child abuse growing up was lacking, and

would like more for their children. The biggest stipulation was that parents wanted to have prior

knowledge of what was in the curriculum, and have the opportunity to be deeply involved in

what was being taught. Opinions differed, some saying parents should have some control over

what was being taught, and others disagreed, saying there are things parents don't know about

child abuse that the children should be taught (Walsh 2012). One conclusion drawn from this

study was that parents are willing to have education for their children from an outside source, but

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 5

do not necessarily know how to get involved. There are also widely differing opinions about the

age that this information should be taught, as well as the amount or content of the information.

These possibilities, while likely, are not backed by much research. Future studies are

required to get to the root of this particular problem. "Unfortunately, there are very few

rigorously evaluated programs, materials, or Web sites developed for parents. Although it is

feasible to recommend content for parent focused materials, the bigger challenge is how to

deliver such information. Typically, parent-focused workshops, often sponsored by schools, are

poorly attended. More research is needed to identify predisposing factors for parents

participation in CSA [Child Sexual Abuse] prevention programs. Research is also needed to

determine effective ways of recruiting parents. Clearly, parents will need to be reached in

innovative ways" (Wurtele 2009).

Effects and Consequences of the Issue

The primary consequence of this problem is that sexual abuse is occurring frequently in

Utah and all over the United States. It is estimated that thousands of children have been abused

and have not received help due to family secrecy and/or the child’s fear of standing up for

themselves. When speaking to a caseworker from Division of Child and Family Services, he

stated that many children continue to live in these situations because caregivers often do not

know who to report to or do not realize that they are not held liable when they report and that

their report will be kept confidential unless they request otherwise (B. Rachal, personal

communication, November 25, 2014). Often times, families state that they would rather keep the

family together and leaving the issue unaddressed rather than making a report, which can often

enable the perpetrator to continue offending. With all these factors considered, there may

considerably more children in Utah than we are aware of who are currently experiencing sexual

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 6

abuse and will not likely receive help until the trauma has already devastated their lives for

years.

When left unreported, the effects of sexual abuse are catastrophic. There are a wide

variety of likely consequences upon a child’s social, psychological, and emotional functioning

that usually affect a child for the rest of their life. According to Allen-Meares and Fraser, some

psychological symptoms include developing disorders such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,

Depression and Suicidal Ideation, and in severe cases even Dissociative Identity Disorder (2004).

In my experience as a mental health worker over the years, I have seen a substantial number of

clients in inpatient settings who had severe mental illness that were coinciding with histories of

sexual abuse. The past trauma can continue to be just as disabling to a person because they were

never given the opportunity to heal and grow. Since sexual abuse is often left unreported or is not

noticed for many years, it compounds the risk of developing such illness.

There are other cognitive and social effects of sexual abuse which include a higher risk of

sexually acting out upon others, hostile behavior towards others, and unsafe risk taking due to

trouble in moderating levels of arousal. Also, there tends to be decrease in school functioning,

especially in areas such as academic achievement, absences, and progress in verbal

communication (Allen-Meares & Fraser, 2004). Unfortunately, this can ultimately lead to a

generational cycle of abusive behavior if not addressed early on in a child’s life. There are

multiple cases of formerly abused parents committing abusive acts upon their children.

Also of deep concern is the growing trend of human sex trafficking and pornographic

exploitation within the United States and around the world. This can easily occur when overall

awareness of sexual abuse and exploitation is lacking in the community. When the signs of these

forms of maltreatment are unknown, predators are easily able to coerce children into such

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 7

servitude and the opportunity for preventative measures is lost. Unless it becomes socially

acceptable to discuss such issues in everyday conversation, this issue is likely to persist and

progress forward, as it already has.

Population most affected by the issue

Parents and children are the population most affected by the issue of child sexual abuse

awareness and prevention. Children 0-5 years old are a critical group to educate regarding

reporting and prevention strategies. They are especially vulnerable because of their young age,

and lack of awareness regarding appropriate touching and sexual issues. Fathers are another

group that would benefit from more information, education, and exposure regarding this topic,

because the majority of participants in studies about child sexual abuse and prevention education

are women (Babatsikos, 2010, p. 109). Mothers are already more involved, and having fathers

participate more in the sexual abuse education of their children would be beneficial. Girls are at

greater risk for child sexual abuse than boys. 10-20% of girls are known to be victims of child

abuse, and less than 10% of boys are found to be affected (Walsh and Brandon, 2012, p. 734).

Boys are also at risk and need to be taught awareness and prevention methods, but girls are more

affected than boys. Overall numbers are likely greater than these figures, this information is

based on reported cases. Families with a lower socioeconomic status and lower levels of

education are more affected by sexual abuse (Babatsikos, 2010, p. 118, 122). Step families or

blended families have a higher risk of child sexual abuse. Families where the mother has a

history of sexual abuse are also at a higher risk of a sexual abuse issues. When substance use or

alcohol use is involved, the risk of child sexual abuse increases. In families where other types of

abuse including physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, or any type of neglect are

present, the probability of sexual abuse is also increased (Babatsikos, 2010, p. 125). Parents who

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 8

are uncomfortable discussing sexuality issues in general are less likely to have open dialogues

with their children about child sexual abuse and prevention. Increasing parents’ knowledge and

confidence in this area is an important goal.

When educating parents regarding child sexual abuse and awareness, it is important to

take into account that cultural norms may vary. Some cultures see child sexual abuse as

shameful, and parents may believe that children should not tell anyone about sexual abuse

(Babatsikos, 2010, p. 122). This is a population that may require knowledge and development of

different child sexual abuse awareness and prevention strategies. It is important to understand

and teach child sexual abuse issues in a culturally sensitive way. Research has found that factors

affecting parents’ attendance of sexual abuse awareness and prevention educational trainings

were affected by interest in the topic, leader qualifications, perceived usefulness of information,

available time, preferred referral from schools or doctors, available child care, and distance from

home (Babatsikos, 2010, p. 123). Ensuring that these logistical issues are addressed appropriately

will encourage parents to attend and implement child sexual abuse awareness and prevention

trainings. Partnering with community schools, where parent support and education about the

many issues is addressed, is likely a good venue to distribute information, due to the trust and

confidence that parents have in their children’s schools.

Other Stakeholders

In the fight to end child sexual abuse and educate parents to the warning signs there are a

number of community stakeholders that we reached out to. The community partner that we have

partnered with is Prevent Child Abuse Utah. Due to the limitations on the time of what we

hoped to accomplish and the nature of the assignment we knew that a community partner would

be critical. Prevent Child Abuse Utah or PCAU has been a service to the community since it

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 9

was founded in 1982 to educate children and adults around issues of abuse. PCAU facilitates a

number of different programs for schools, communities, and even within a home. They provide

training to parents, educators, and other professionals who work with children on the detection

and prevention of all forms of child abuse. Programs are also in place for children to be

educated on what constitutes abuse and safe ways of reporting if they are being perpetrated

against. In speaking with PCAU they voiced that despite having a presence for over thirty years

in Weber County they saw the need for greater access to the community. Many families were

unaware of their services and the educational materials they could provide.

In a study on the educators ability to take on the issues it was found that “while the

majority of teachers confront child abuse among their students, they are provided insufficient

education on how to address it” (Abrahams et al, 1992). Our communities have the protectors in

place, but we do a disservice in not providing them with all of the tools and knowledge to deal

with the situation. The fault does not come from a lack of resources, but rather a lack of

knowledge on where to access the resources. For this reason we identified schools as one of the

greatest stakeholders that we should work with. We have reached out to a few different schools

and have received some interest from Midvale Elementary and their district as a potential partner

in working with their students and parents.

Another stakeholder in this topic is society at large. In a published study on the monetary

cost on society of child abuse and neglect it was found that $33,101,302,133 annually is being

spent in costs attributed to directly correlated physical health, mental health, child welfare

programs, and law enforcement, with an additional estimated $103,754,017,492 indirect cost

(Wang & Holton, 2007). For many of the public the the eradication of child abuse and its

prevention is widely accepted as an appropriate course of action. For those who need an

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 10

economic incentive the numbers support the eradication of child abuse and neglect if only on the

basis of saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

Our main community partner of Prevent Child Abuse Utah and the community schools

are our focus for the coming semester for the scope of our project. There are a number of other

agencies who we would like to work with, such as church groups and other counseling agencies.

The utilization of the thirty years of experience at PCAU and their programs that have been

developed will be key in helping us move forward and assisting in educating parents and other

key adults in the recognition of child abuse and knowledge of resources available to them.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 11

References

Abrahams, N., Casey, K., & Daro, D. (1992). Teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about

child abuse and its prevention. Child Abuse & Neglect, 16(2), 229-238.

Allen-Meares, P., Fraser, M.W. (2004). Intervention with children and adolescents: An

interdisciplinary perspective. Pearson Education, Inc.

American Psychological Association. (2007). Task force on the sexualization of girls: Report of

the APA task force on the sexualization of girls. Washington, DC: American

Psychological Association; 2007. Retrieved on December 10, 2014 from

http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html.

Babatsikos, G. (2010). Parents’ knowledge, attitudes and practices about preventing child

sexual abuse: A literature review. Child Abuse Review, 19, 107-129.

doi:10:1002/car.1102

H.B. 286 Child Sex Abuse Prevention. (2014 General Session). Retrieved December 09, 2014,

from Utah State Legislature: http://le.utah.gov/~2014/bills/static/hb0286.html

Walsh, K. & Brandon, L. (2012). Their children’s first educators: Parents’ views about child

sexual abuse prevention education. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 21, 734-746.

doi:10.1007/s10826-011-9526-4

Wang, C., & Holton, J. (2007). Total estimated cost of child abuse and neglect in the united

states. Prevent child abuse utah, 1-5.

Wurtele, S. K., & Kenny, M. C. (2010). Partnering with parents to prevent childhood sexual

abuse. Child Abuse Review, 19(2), 130–152.

Wurtele, S. K. (2009). Preventing sexual abuse of children in the twenty-first century: Preparing

for challenges and opportunities. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 18(1), 1–18.

Friday, December 5, 2014

We Have a Winner!

Hurray! We have been approved to distribute our survey at Davis Behavioral Health in Layton, Utah.
The population that they serve is both the Children and Youth and Adult Outpatient. Most client's are Medicaid clients, court-ordered, or paying on a sliding scale fee. This reaches the lower economic status population that Diana found in her research are underrepresented and yet have a high number of incidents of child abuse reported.
The method for distributing these surveys would most likely be to have them complete a paper format. There is also a possibility of getting the survey to populate on the mini iPads that the parents use monthly to complete their child's Youth Outcome Questionnaire. These YOQ's are required the beginning of each month, so that would be the ideal time to pass out our survey and piggy-back on what they are already doing.
We also talked about offering a piece of candy for completing the survey, and possibly a prize drawing incentive as well. I would be able to get a nice pair of bluetooth headphones as the prize.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

More on Survey Creation & Distribution

The survey has been created now on Qualtrics and is almost ready to be distributed. We went through it as a group and feel that there are a a few more questions that we could still add, such as getting more information about the demographics of the individuals taking the survey, possibly with race, socioeconomic status and religion. In some of the surveys we looked at for examples we saw that those were included and may give us a clearer picture if their are any distinctions or factors related to backgrounds that could shed more light on the issue. We also have begun organizing and writing our paper summarizing the project for our presentation next week.
Ian

The survey looks great, thanks for creating it Ian! Thanks for finding a good place to distribute it Katie! I agree that it will be helpful to learn more about the demographic information of the people answering the survey. I think that knowing more about the populations that we are helping, will help us to be more aware of important issues and needs of the populations that we want to serve. - Diana

I'm so glad to hear that we have been able to make further connections with stakeholders. After talking to my friend who works at DCFS, I have realized that he has considerable insight regarding sexual abuse awareness and perception specifically within the Utah county area. Hopefully this can also help build upon further qualitative understanding into this issue.
Besides that, I am wondering what all of your thoughts are in considering questions of demographics. Would it be best to have a section labeled race/ethnic background or would it be better to give it another title? What is the best way to state such a question? Do you guys have examples from assessment sheets you use at your internships? Anyways, go team! Glad things are continuing to move along smoothly. - Cameron

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Community Schools

Sonja Anderson form Midvale Elementary called me back today 11/25/14. She said that the best way to distribute our survey in the schools and educate parents regarding talking to children about sexual abuse is to work through the Canyons School District community school director, Michele Vogler. Sonja has spoken with Michele, and said that it should be a good fit. I think that we should finalize a few details before we talk to Michele. The school will be closed for the rest of the week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, Michele should be available to discuss the project next week.- Diana

Canyons School District Community Schools Coordinator:
Michele Vogler
801-826-5023
michele.vogler@canyonsdistrict.org

Friday, November 21, 2014

Sample Survey Questions

Here are some survey questions that I came up with, let me know what you think. If we have enough good questions, I think that it would be okay to make the survey longer in order to make it more detailed and inclusive. What do you all think? - Diana

1) What are the age ranges of your children? Please mark all that apply.

a) 0-5
b) 6-10
c) 11-14
d) 15-18

2) Do you see child sexual abuse as rare or unusual?

a) Yes
b) No

3) Is it more common for child sexual abusers to be:

a) A stranger
b) Someone known to the child (family member, family friend, neighbor)ĥ

4) Have you discussed sexual abuse with your child?

a) Yes
b) No

5) Do you feel comfortable discussing sexual abuse with your child?

a) Yes
b) No

6) Do you feel that you have the knowledge and vocabulary to discuss sexual abuse with your child?

a) Yes
b) No

7) Who do you believe should be the primary educator of your child regarding child sexual abuse?

a) school
b) child's friends
c) parents
d) siblings
e) T.V., newspaper, radio

8) What level of risk do you feel your child is at for being the victims of sexual abuse?

a) High
b) Low

9) Where did you receive the information that you will use to educate your child about sexual abuse?

a) T.V., newspaper, radio
b) media
c) doctor
c) child abuse education programs
d) nowhere specific, life lessons learned by growing older
e) other, please specify ____________________________________________

10) Did your parents talk to you about sexual abuse and prevention when you were a child?

a) Yes
b) No

11) Do you feel comfortable discussing child sexual abuse and prevention with your child's pediatrician?

a) Yes
b) No

12) In your household, who would be most likely to talk with your child about sexual abuse?

a) Mother
b) Father
c) Both mother and father together
d) No one

13) Would you find it important and worth your time to take a parent education course regarding how to talk to children about sexual abuse?

a) Yes
b) No

14) How knowledgeable do you feel your child currently is regarding sexual abuse issues and protection strategies?

a) Very high
b) High
c) Moderate
d) Low
e) Very low

15) At what age should children first be introduced to sexual abuse issues, and taught personal safety skills?

a) 1-2 years old
a) Preschool age
b) Elementary school age
c) Middle school age
d) High school age
e) Never, if children are not introduced to problems regarding sexual abuse they are less likely to occur

16) Additional comments regarding this survey.

__________________________________________________________

Survey questions/Facebook distribution

Hello all!

After talking today, I think we overall have plenty of great questions to use in the survey. After speaking to my friend who works for DCFS, he was able to help me write a few more questions that may also be of help:

Who would you report suspected child abuse to? (select all that apply)
a. Child and Family Services
b. Police
c. Church Leadership
d. Family
e. Nobody

-correct answers: a and b

Which of these choices is considered sexual abuse? (select all that apply)
a. A 17 year old having consensual sex with a 16 year old.
b. A 5 year old exploring genetalia with another 5 year old.
c. A minor finds their parent's pornography collection.
d. A parent showering his or her 12 year old daughter with no sexual intent.
e. An adult touches the buttocks of a minor for sexual gratification.
f. None of the above.

-correct answers: c and e

Any report made of child sexual abuse will be kept anonymous unless the informant states otherwise

a. True
b. False

-correct answer: a

Also, once we have this survey completed this weekend, I will post it on the group Facebook page and we can distribute it to friends and ask them to forward it on. Also, I will do my best to send it out to people at random within the Salt Lake area. Hopefully between both approaches we will be able to acquire plenty of response.

Cameron

Facebook page

Hey all,

I created a Facebook page for our survey group. Sign in with our usual email address and password. I posted a description of our project on the timeline, feel free to make changes as you feel is appropriate. I had to put my personal name in to make the account, but I made it so that all posts, likes, etc will be shown as "Child Abuse Awareness for Parents" rather than my name.

I didn't put a picture, I "liked" the University of Utah and Prevent Child Abuse Utah. It might make us feel a little more legitimate to survey takers if we friended the page or something so they can see that we actually exist.

Any ideas and feedback is welcome! :)

Laurel

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Survey 2.0 + Meeting

We decided that using survey monkey might discourage people from participating as it is a less formal site. I created an account with qualtrics. Their program is much more professional and gives us more information and ways of looking at the reaponses given. Hopefully this change will help parents feel more comfortable with the credibility of our survey. Prevent Child Abuse Utah also gave us permission to add their logo to the survey after they had a chance to approve it. We are still trying to figure out the best way to disseminate it and are looking into using Facebook.
Ian

This week I contacted Jordan School District to ask if they would support us in distributing the child sexual abuse awareness survey for parents in schools, and down the road allow us to hold parent education classes regarding teaching children about sexual abuse. They said no, that their focus is on child education, not parent education.

I then contacted Midvale Elementary School in the Canyons School District. Their principal was not in, and I spoke with Sonja Anderson (801-826-8350), the school social worker, who seemed interested in and supportive of the project. I told her that we are partnering with Prevent Child Abuse Utah. She took notes about our project and said that she would discuss it with the principal and call me back next week. I believe that this will fit well with the community school model at Midvale Elementary School. I will post again when I speak with Sonja again.

Our group met twice this week and made good progress, setting up a new survey site, and a group Facebook page. I set up two google docs for our group presentation, one for the power point, and one for the paper, so that we can work on the presentation together. Good job group! - Diana

Friday, October 24, 2014

Child Abuse Wheel and Equality Wheel

http://www.ncdsv.org/publications_wheel.html
(to access this link, copy and paste it into your browser)

I love this resource! It consists of two wheels, a child abuse wheel and equality wheel, based off of the original domestic violence wheel. The child abuse wheel specifically explains signs of child abuse, including physical, emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse components. This helps children and parents to identify signs of child abuse. I think that the equality wheel is also a crucial resource, because it helps parents and children identify a healthy relationship, and differentiate it from an abusive one. This is diverse resource that can be processed in an individual or group therapy setting, or can be presented in a larger group, taking a psycho-educational approach. I love that these wheels are informative and easy to understand. Teaching the concepts from these wheels will inform parents and children, and help them to recognize and be aware of the difference between healthy/safe and unhealthy/unsafe relationships. These wheels can be used as effective tools to help prevent, as well as detect child abuse. -Diana

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Resources

I have been looking up different resources that would be helpful for our project. I have found the following resourcesinformative and interesting:

www.rainn.org - my favorite, gives good information, easy to understand
nsopw.gov
focus on the family.com - this website gives useful statistics about sexual abuse
www.stop it now.org
Huffington Post - safe touch and not safe touch - better to teach children, vs. good and bad touch - not good to teach children, easy for children to misunderstand this language.
Oprah clip - 4 things parents should know about sexual abuse
10 ways to talk to your children about sexual abuse
www.childhelp.org - 3 main things to tell kids about sexual abuse:

Explain types of touch
Teach child to say "no"
Teach children to speak up

Within the next few weeks I will begin to facilitate an "Adults Molested As Children" group at my practicum. I have begun to study some information for this group that is informative. - Diana

Our in class discussion we talked about some of the different community resources that we could tap into. We talked about the school districts and that they may have some programs in place that we could incorporate as well as Prevent Child Abuse Utah. We discovered that some of these groups already have resources and perhaps what we need to do is help increase visibility and accessibility to these resources rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. -Ian

The assigned tasks this past meeting included Katie looking further into opportunities to attend a Child Abuse awareness event, and each of us continuing to brainstorm survey questions to be used in measuring public awareness as well as finding further resources for information on child abuse.
-Cameron

Survey Questions

Hey all! Here are some ideas for questions we could put on the surveys for the project:

- What knowledge do you have now about child abuse?

- As a parent, what would be some the pros and cons of discussing child abuse with your child?

- If you found out your child was abused, what steps would you take?

- Who would you feel most comfortable talking about the topic of child abuse with? (clergy member, therapist, school counselor)

- How many signs of child abuse do you know?

Some of these could probably be more delicately stated, but there's the general idea.

Laurel

Here are a few more questions I have thought of:

- If you were to witness child abuse, what would be your possible hesitations in reporting it?

- T/F Child abuse reporting is a legal requirement of any witness.

- What agency would be best to call upon witnessing child abuse?

- Would you be willing to attend any training on child abuse awareness if given the chance?

- How frequently do you believe child abuse happens in your neighborhood?

- Have you ever witnessed or experienced child abuse before? If so, circle the following types: Sexual, Emotional, Physical.

Cameron

I am thinking it might be best to keep most of the answers as quantitative as possible. I worry that if we have too many questions that are open ended it will make our data harder to use. Some qualitative questions could be really helpful though.
I am liking the questions that we have come up with, I think as long as we are able to come up with a/b/c/d options and possibly an "other" where they can fill in additional information if they wish. I have started the survey monkey survey, so now we just need to finish it up and figure out how we are going to disseminate it to the widest possible populations. We also talked about naming it something a little more ambiguous to cast a wider net, which is something that I would support, as we included a few more general parenting type questions.
Ian

I agree with Ian. Qualitative responses would probably help most in our short time we have to compile and analyze the data. I like the ideas and questions posted. Ian, do you have more of the questions that we created together when we met before break?

Also, I will be attending the Joining Forces Conference next Monday, and I can get an idea about what is available information out there already.

Friday, October 3, 2014

I talked with Trina Taylor, the director of Prevent Child Abuse Utah. She has some time next Friday from 10:00 am-12:00 pm available if we wanted to Skype or just do a group conference call. I'll have to check with Astle to see if she'd be okay with that.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Resources for project

I was thinking of ways that we could help get the word out, including what I could do specifically. I am course happy to talk with my practicum and work agencies to see if they would be on board with distributing some surveys. Both of these agencies are with youth and we work heavily with children and families who are dealing with child abuse. Also, we could think about posting surveys on Facebook or other social media as well to see what kind of responses we get that way. Regarding what Cameron talked about as far as media networks and what we have been discussing, I also have one or two media contacts that I may be able to utilize. Talk to you all soon!
Laurel

Thinking of social media, do you think we could get a representative sample if we invited tons of people in the salt lake area at random to join a Child Abuse Utah group? If we enter a search of adults in the Salt Lake area and pick the nth person (maybe 200 total) to invite to the group, maybe this can help eliminate competing and extraneous variables in the survey.

-Cameron

Friday, September 19, 2014

Why this Project?

Our group project is to raise awareness of the reality of child abuse right here in Utah. In fact, every 10 seconds, there is a new report of child abuse that has taken place somewhere in Utah. According to statistics from Prevent Child Abuse Utah, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys experience some form of abide by the time that they are eighteen. Our hope is to raise awareness and then improve communication between parents, or caregivers and children. The number one prevention strategy is for children to feel comfortable talking with their parents or caregiver. We want to help bridge that gap, and create comfortable dialogue on the part of both parent and child.

Problem Statement: (as of October 2, 2014)

Child sexual abuse takes place in Utah, yet parents continue to be unaware and unprepared to recognize the signs and symptoms of this abuse taking place.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Members of our group, Abuse Awareness for Parents with Children, are Katie, Laurel, Diana, Ian, and Cameron. We met as a group yesterday to become better acquainted and discuss our ideas for direction and goals of our group. Everyone in our group was present for the group meeting. We will be working with Prevent Child Abuse Utah (PCAU), whose core values are to protect and value children, strengthen families, and engage communities. To get started, Katie will meet with Trina at PCAU to better define our group's role in creating a task force for PCAU. Our group will then meet again to discuss the meeting with Trina, and assign tasks to each group member. I am excited about this project because I love working with children and families, and protecting and valuing children, strengthening families, and engaging communities are all values that really resonate with me. - Diana

A few of the clients that I am working with at my practicum are adults who were abused as children or are children that have recently been abused. I am hoping that I can learn a little bit more about childhood abuse for this project that I can use to assist my clients, as well as use the work with my clients to inform what is done with our project. - Ian

After discussing our plans the other day, I have thought of a few ideas of ways which we can get the word out on abuse. For one, we can reach out to local news media (sltrib, KSL, and Fox) as a possible means of bringing attention to the cause. By doing so, if we hypothetically had a large awareness event such as a 5k going on, we could easily advertise it through those news sources if they were interested. Another idea I had would be to help evoke intrinsic motivation within the community by spreading statistics specifically stating the prevalence of chid abuse within Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber counties. This could hopefully help people realize this is likely going on in their own neighborhoods. These are just some ideas I had to help brainstorm our intervention, and hopefully these can be of some help in addition to what we learn from PCAU. Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday! - Cameron

Abuse Awareness for Parents with Children