Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Stay safe primary prevention programme for child abuse

Objective. This child abuse prevention study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Stay Safe
Programme in training unscreened 7 and 10 year old children in personal safety skills. Subsidiary aims were
to evaluate the programme's impact on children's self-esteem and parents' and teachers' knowledge and
attitudes of relevance to child abuse and protection.
Method. Changes in safety knowledge and skills and self-esteem of 339 children who participated in the
Stay Safe Programme were compared with those of 388 waiting list controls. Children in the training group
were also followed up at 3 months. In addition, the knowledge and attitudes of parents and teachers of
children who completed the programme were evaluated before and after the programme and 5 month followup
data were collected from teachers only.
Results. Compared with waiting-list controls, trained children showed significant improvements in safety
knowledge and skills and these gains were maintained at follow-up. The greatest gains were made by 7 year
olds. Children who participated in the programme also showed significant improvements in self-esteem
which were maintained at 3 months follow-up but only the 7 year olds in the training group made significantly
larger gains in self-esteem than their control group counterparts. Children with a higher socio-economic
status benefited more from the programme than less privileged children. Both parents and teachers showed
significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes concerning protection over the course of the
programme and for teachers, these gains were maintained at follow-up.
Conclusion. The findings suggest that the Stay Safe Programme was effective in training children in safety
skills and so may usefully be used as a primary prevention intervention for child abuse.