Ch,/dAh,w & he~len. Vol 8. pp 511-517, 19X4 Primed m the U.S.A All nghu reserved.

0145.2134/R4$3.00 + .W Copyright & 1984 Pcrgamon Press Ltd.

A PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL PROGRAM DEALING WITH CHILD ABUSE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

RICHARD VOLPE, PH.D.

Professor. Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, 45 Walmer Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 2X2

Abstract-This paper reports the outcome of an attempt to teach children in grades 5 and 6 about child abuse and neglect. The Child Abuse Component of the Human Relations Program described and evaluated here is a unique effort to provide children with an opportunity to discuss and learn about this aspect of family violence. An impact assessment was conducted by documenting possible changes in student knowledge and attitudes regarding child abuse as a result of exposure to the Child Abuse Component of the Human Relations Program. The test group of children consisted of 315 boys and girls in grades 5 and 6. A comparison group of 298 children was closely matched with the test group on the basis of age and sex. These groups were formed by randomly selecting 12 teachers from all teachers agreeing to use the Component and 10 teachers choosing not to employ the Component. The students in the classrooms of these teachers received the same curriculum for their grade level with the exception of the field-test group additionally receiving the Component. Selected child abuse knowledge, attitude, and personality (security) measures were given all subjects in a post-test with comparison group research design. Teacher knowledge and attitude were also assessed. The results of the data analysis, teacher, and special observer reports suggest that the Component was effective in meeting its objectives and was not disturbing to test subjects. Apparently, the test children profited by experiencing the Component mainly because of the opportunity it provided for class discussion. Moreover, the knowledge levels and interest of the children in both groups was seriously underestimated.

R&urn&-Les Ccoles exercent un pouvoir tducatif sur les enfants qui dtpasse largement les strictes limites du programme scolaire. Le prestige des enseignants reste tr& grand aup& des enfants et en cons&.quence, le contenu de ce qu’ils enseignent est trts important pour modeler les comportements desdits enfants. 11 ne faut pas attendre des tcoles qu’elles soient capables de rtsoudre tous les problbmes sociaux prtsents ou B venir. II n’en reste pas moins que beaucoup de chases peuvent &re assimiltes par les enfants grlce au canal de l’&ole. Le rapport prtsentt ici fait allusion g un programme Cducatif qui avait la particularitt de ne pas &tre limit& dans son application aux adolescents (ainsi que c’est gtneralement le cas), mais qui s’adressait g des enfants de l’&zole primaire. Son impact a Ctt tvalut au moyen de moyens psychologiques habituellement reconnus comme valables. Les sujets mis B Epreuve consistaient en 3 15 garGons et filles des degrts 5 et 6 de l’kole primaire. On a cornpark cette cohorte avec une autre de 298 enfants qui ttait appariee aussi bien que possible aux enfants de la prernikre cohorte et qui servaient de tkmoins. Douze maitres et maitresses d’&ole ont &te choisis au hasard parmi les enseignants qui acceptaient d’utiliser le programme et IO ont ttC choisis parmi les enseignants qui dtsiraient rester en dehors du programme. Pour le reste, le curriculum des tleves ttait le m&me. Le programme lui-meme ttait constitut surtout par des films et des bandes vid&o, descriptifs de situations pratiques et formant une base de discussion. On a tgalement ttudiC les connaissances et les attitudes des maitres d’&zole B l’tgard des probltmes de la maltraitance envers les enfants. Finalement, les resultats ont montrt que le programme psycho-tducatif ne perturbait pas, comme on pouvait le craindre, les sujets ttudiks. On a tgalement trouve que les enfants ont tire profit de l’expkrience, surtout par le biais des discussions que le mat&e1 pr&ntC suscitait. Les observateurs s’apequrent que le degrt de COM~%~IICE au sujet de la violence perp&Q a l’tgard d’enfants ttait plus tlevte dans la population ttudiee qu’ils ne s’y attendaient et que l’int&t ttait kgalement plus vif que ce qu’on pouvait attendre de la part d’enfants si jeunes. Dans ce sens, l’exp&ience a ttt probante. L’auteur admet que dans une autre population, la connaissance du probltme aurait pu etre de niveau moins Be+. Le point le plus important semble &re la capacitt d’enfants relativement jeunes & saisir l’importance et les consequences de cette probltmatique particuliere.

This project was supported by a grant from the Child Abuse Prevention Program of the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Fourth International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, September 9. 1982. Paris, France

511

512 Richard Volpe

INTRODUCTION

THAT SCHOOLS EXERT A POWERFUL INFLUENCE on the lives of children is obvi- ous. Along with families, they share the primary responsibility for socialization and accul- turation. They can facilitate a child’s capacity for satisfying relationships. meeting challenges, self-determination and a positive self-concept. Similarly they can induce a sense of defeat, despair, disillusionment, alienation and dependence.

Since education often is seen as a panacea for all social problems, schools have unrealistic exp~tations put on them. As a defense against criticism when such goals are not met, schools sometimes deny their influence outside of the cognitive domain.

However, psychoeducation, or the application of social science information in school pro- grams, is perhaps an achievable and realistic goal for the school system. Information learned could be applied to life situations, as mathematics is applied to numerical problems at any time during the life course.

Al~ou~ a number of psychoeducational programs have been developed for children in recent years, few deal with child maltreatment, and these are invariably intended for adoles- cents. Furthermore, no outcome evaluation reports on such child abuse components exist. Therefore the Child Abuse Component of the Simcoe County Human Relations Program [ 1] is a unique effort to provide children in grades 5 and 6 with information concerning child m~treatment.

The Human Relations Program was developed as a comprehensive curriculum for use in grades K-12 and covers interpersonal relations, communications, family life, values and moral education. Field testing of the Child Abuse Component of the program was conducted in several Simcoe County grades 5 and 6 classrooms involving lo- and 1 l-year-old children over the period January to June 1979. This report represents an outcome evaluation of the pilot implementation of the Component and addresses such issues as the potential effective- ness of the Component in achieving its objectives and the consequent desirability of wide- spread implementation. Specifically, the evaluation aimed to document changes in student knowledge and attitudes regarding child abuse as a result of the Component.

LITE~TURE REVIEW

Most family life and parent education programs focus on normal child development and neglect to teach children about child abuse. One program which does include discussion of abuse is Exploring Childhood, developed by the Education Development Center, Inc., which consists of classroom lessons combined with field placements in nurseries and day-care cen- ters [2-51. “Family and Society,” the third module of the package, deals with child abuse as well as other social problems. In both the first and second years of the program it appears that this module was the one that was the least used and the least successful in meeting its goals. This may be due to the module being placed at the end of the program by which time the teachers had few classes left in the school year [3, p. 15- 191. There is no information available which deals specifically with the students’ knowledge of and attitudes towards abuse, although some findings have been reported on punishment:

In sum, students who have taken Exploring Childhood tend to favor milder forms of punishment and less rigid control of children than students who have not taken the course [3, p. 191.

By reducing student approval of harsh pu~shment and concurrently increasing knowledge of child development, the program may help reduce the likelihood of abuse, though whether this actually occurs cannot as yet be ascertained.

A psychoeducatlonal program for elementary school children 513

Similarly, the Salvation Army has developed a series of manuals to be used by summer youth counselors to deal with parenting problems [6]. Topics covered in the 12-unit program include self-concept, marriage. prenatal influences, parenting, accident prevention and child abuse.

Most of these parenting and family life education courses differ considerably from the Child Abuse Component employed in Simcoe County. Many of the parenting programs include actual work with young children. while the Component did not. The Component covered child abuse in greater detail than is the case elsewhere, and it included research aimed at determining the effects of child abuse information on the pupils.

SAMPLE AND PROCEDURE

The field-test group of children consisted of 315 boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 11 in grades 5 and 6. A comparison group of 298 children was selected, closely matched with the field-test group on the basis of sex and age. Both groups were given the conventional curriculum for their grade level with the field-test group receiving the Child Abuse Compo- nent in addition.

Twelve teachers, randomly selected from a group of those agreeing to use the Component, comprised the field-test group while ten teachers were randomly chosen as a comparison group. Since the field-test teachers were a sample of volunteers, they could not be randomly assigned to conditions. Other constraints on the experiment design arose from restrictions imposed by the Simcoe County Board of Education. No pretesting to obtain a baseline indication of children and teacher child abuse knowledge levels was permitted. In spite of these limitations, however, it was possible to use a standard quasi-experimental method known as the post-test, the only design with an accompanying comparison group. This design yielded aggregate data that was sufficient to provide an outcome evaluation with a minimum of classroom disruption.

Teachers intending to use the Component were encouraged to attend a workshop dealing with child abuse. Supplementing the Component curriculum were one film and three video- tapes designed for children and dealing with various aspects of abuse.

The evaluation measures used included the Human Relations Background Information Survey, administered to both the field-test and comparison groups of teachers, and the Hu- man Relations Course Survey and ICS Security Scale (The Stop ofJimmy) which were given to all the children in the experimental and comparison classes. All of the devices employed have had field trials and reliability checks [7]. The ICS Security Scale (The Stop of Jimmy) is psychometrically sound and has been used extensively in Ontario and in other psychoeduca- tional evaluation studies [8].

In view of the aforementioned constraints on design, an effort was made to enrich the data base through the use of multiple means of data gathering. As well as the testing program, nonparticipant observation in the classrooms, teacher diaries, and informal interviews with teachers and principals were utilized. This qualitative material is presented here in conjunc- tion with the outcome of quantitative data analysis.

THE CHILD ABUSE COMPONENT

Units in the Component begin with an overview of the family covering such topics as function and structure. roles and responsibilities and communication. “Stresses of Family

514 Richard Volpe

Life” explains family problems, the reasons behind them and how families cope with them: “Some Families Have Real Problems” specifically focuses on child abuse and explains its history, causes, treatment and effects. Laws pertaining to abuse and agencies which try to treat or prevent abuse are also explained.

One commercially produced film, Better Safe rhan Sort, and three videotapes produced for the Component, What’s Bugging Him, It Happened to Me, and Hard Choices, supplemented the units. Rather than serving to provide the children with facts on child abuse or cover legal and medical issues, the films are intended to supply material for discussion. Depictions of emotional abuse, for example, ask the question, why, and can lead to discussions of the difficulties faced by parents and alternatives to potentially abusive situations.

All field-test teachers incorporated the videotapes into the Component with some using additional films and stories compatible with the program. The most popular approach for introducing the Component was one which focused on caring for pets. These classes discussed such topics as the responsibilities of the pet owner, areas where responsibilities are neglected, and agencies that protect animals.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Teachers’ Attitudes and Knowledge about ChiId Abuse

It was essential to ascertain the teachers’ knowledge in the area of child abuse because: (a) It enabled the long term effects of the child abuse workshop to be determined; and (b) the level of a teacher’s knowledge can have an important effect on the level of a pupil’s know- ledge.

For this purpose the Human Relations Background Information Survey was used. consist- ing of a self-rating form, an objective test measuring child abuse knowledge, four brief state- ments of opinion requiring true-false responses, and a final section asking teachers to define various types of maltreatment. All ten of the control group teachers completed the Survey while 11 of the 12 field-test teachers did so.

On the self-rating form, the field test teachers felt themselves to be more knowledgeable on child abuse than did the comparison groups: X = 1.65, SD = 0.85 and X = 2.57, SD = 0.38. respectively; t = 3.26, p = .006. Similarly the field-test teachers rated themselves higher than did the comparison teachers on their confidence in identifying emotional maltreatment: r = 3.52, p = .004; and confidence in referral, t = 2.57, p = .020. Furthermore the field-testers felt themselves to be more experienced in dealing with maltreatment than did the comparison group teachers: t = 2.35, p = .037; and the more experienced in following through with other professionals or agencies: t = 2.25, p = .042.

On the objective test of teacher knowledge, however, the field-test teachers obtained a mean score of 19.36 (SD = 1.77); the control group, a mean score of 18.8 (SD = 3.82). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) resulted in a F value of .1755, which is not signifi- cant. Therefore, the two groups do not differ significantly in knowledge even though the experimental group had given themselves higher self-ratings. In fact, both groups scored low on the test with the field-testers averaging 58.67% and the comparison group 56.97% out of a maximum possible score of 33.

The two groups were in fairly close agreement on the four true-false question responses. Similarly, a one-way analysis of variance showed no significant differences between the scores of the field-test and comparison teachers on the final section of the Survey dealing with definitions of abuse.

A psychoeducational program for elementary school children

Outcome of the Component’s Use with Children

515

Sample. The 298 pupils in the comparison group and the 315 field-test children were com- pared with respect to male-female ratios and age. Neither factor resulted in a significant difference between the two groups. In the comparison group, the average age was 10.996 years (n = 281, SD = 1.55) while the field-test group had a mean age of 11.048 (n = 315, SD = 1.007) an insignificant difference in mean ages (t = 0.47, p = 0.638).

Children’s security. The Institute of Child Study (ICS) Security Test [7], also known as The Srory of Jimmy, is in the form of a story about a day in the life of a boy named Jimmy. At various points in the story children are given several alternatives which are open to Jimmy and are asked to rate alternatives from best to worst. Most children see the test as an enjoyable activity, not at all threatening, and cooperate fully.

Analysis of the test yields two scores, the Security Score (SS) and the Consistency Score (CS). A high SS indicates a preference for an independent approach to problem solving and reflects the child’s confidence in his or her abilities and willingness to accept the consequences of his or her actions. High CS scores are indicative of good organizational skills and self- determination. A child who scores highly on both the SS and CS has good ego strength with an organized and realistic approach to life (see reference 8 for a detailed discussion of The Story of Jimmy ).

When the field-test and comparison groups were compared on the ICS Security Test, no significant differences were found between them. There was no significant difference between their Security Scores: X = 72.33, SD = 10.96 and X = 71.74, SD = 11.60, respectively, t = 0.96,~ (two-tailed) = 0.34; or between their Consistency Scores: field-test, X = 31.89, SD = 17.98; Comparison: X = 31.04, SD = 18.54, t = 0.84, p (two-tailed) = 0.40. Thus the Component had no significant effects on the children’s security and consistency.

Children’s attitudes and knowledge about child abuse. Children’s knowledge levels were mea- sured using the Human Relations Course Survey Form. Part A of the form gives the children a question or statement and a list of responses which they are requested to rank in order from best to worst. In Part B the children are again given a question or statement but are asked to select the best response from those listed. Finally, Part C gives the children a question followed by four cartoon dogs resembling the Peanuts character, “Snoopy.” Snoopy’s expres- sions range from very happy to very sad and the children circle the Snoopy which shows how they feel about the questions.

Question by question analysis of the forms demonstrated few differences between the two groups. The only major differences were in their estimates of the prevalence of abuse, their opinions about how helpful a teacher would be in handling abuse and in their beliefs about which organizations are responsible for dealing with abuse. On the Snoopy scales the field- test group had more positive attitudes about the CAS and less negative opinions of abusers and abuse than did the comparison group. Subscale analysis showed that the Component resulted in increased knowledge about abuse.

Overall, the field-test children showed increased knowledge as a result of the Component. They also developed more positive attitudes towards the professionals who deal with abuse and a greater awareness of the complexities of abuse. If faced with an abusive situation, the field-test children may be able to cope more constructively than the comparison group chil- dren.

516

Teacher-Children Correlation

Richard Volpe

Correlation coefficients were calculated for the pupils’ mean subscale scores and the teach- ers’ knowledge scores. No significant differences between any of the correlations were ob- tained.

Chiidren ‘s Reaction to Videotapes

Pupils in the field-test group were asked to write answers to three questions about the films: (1) Did you like the film? (2) Why, or why not? and (3) What did you learn from the film?

In their responses, the children tended to evaluate the films on the basis of the actions and the characters portrayed in the stories rather than the quality or style of the vignettes. While most pupils liked the films, they found the violence directed at children in What’s Bugging Him to be offensive. Responses to the “What did you learn?’ question did not mirror their observed attitudes and were often flippant and unfeeling. Participant observer reports here indicated that the films instigated serious and sensitive discussion. These reports were cor- roborated by the comments and observations recorded by the teachers on their classes’ reac- tions to the tapes.

Teacher Reports after Using the Component

In view of some concern over possible parental reactions to the Component, the teachers reported very few problems. Two children were withdrawn from the field-testing grade 6 group by parental request while another parent asked if her child could do her project on a positive aspect of abuse such as the Children’ Aid Society. Many teachers expressed surprise at the calmness with which their classes discussed abuse. Two teachers reported: “The reac- tions were that this topic was something possible and not terribly terrifying” and “I was somewhat deflated while doing this unit because the children were so matter-of-fact about the issues. I guess I had hopes of being ‘the great enlightener.’ “I

Several teachers noted difficulty in keeping discussion in the third person as well as keeping it away from specific references to the pupils’ parents. One teacher reported that when he tried to discourage discussion of the children’s families, it considerably dampened the debate.

Overall, the tone of the comments was positive. No developmental differences between the grades 5 and 6 children were apparent. All the teachers were impressed with the mature attitude towards the material covered, and the interest and enthusiasm exhibited by their pupils. Despite some initial apprehension, the teachers reported no problems in covering the units and generally appeared to follow the approaches outlined in the curriculum guide.

CONCLUSION

The Child Abuse Component of the Simcoe County Human Relations Program appears to have been effective in meeting its objectives. Pupils accepted the discussion of child abuse, exhibited no discomfort, and increased their knowledge and awareness of the subject. More- over, the appropriateness of the curriculum for the developmental levels of the pupils was not a problem. Finally, no significant negative community reactions were evident.

At this point the usual decision choices in curriculum evaluation are whether or not to maintain, expand, revise or abandon a program. In the case of the Component, however, these choices divert attention from what is perhaps the most serious problem revealed by the

A psychoeducational program for elementary school children 517

evaluation. More than anything, the real issue that emerges is that the field-test children profited somewhat by the Component merely because of being provided an opportunity for class discussion. The knowledge and willingness of these children to talk about child abuse was underestimated.

Successes that were manifested were, therefore, as likely due to recent news coverage of child maltreatment as they were to the knowledge and understanding of the field-test teach- ers. Children at a different time and in a different community might not react as positively as did the field-test group.

Acknowledgemenf-The assistance of Judi Shields and Rob Milling on this project is acknowledged.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6. 1.

8.

Copies of the Child Abuse Component of the Simcoe County Human Relations Program are available from the Child Abuse Program, Simcoe County Child and Family Services, Barrie, Ontario. A resource manual entitled “A Different Understanding: Child Abuse” and the four videotapes described are distributed by TV Ontario, Box 200, Station Q, Toronto, Ontario M4T 2Tl. The full report of the evaluation project can be obtained from the author. COBB, C. and PETERS, E. Exploring Childhood. National Field Test: Year 1. Educational Development Center, Newton, MA (1975). EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER. Exploring Childhood. Narionnl Field Test: Year I. E.D.C., New- ton, MA (1976a). EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER. Exploring Childhood: Notional Field Tesr: xeur II. E.D.C., New- ton, MA (1976b). EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER. Exploring Childhood: Program Overview und Catalog of Muteri- uls. E.D.C., Newton, MA (1977). LEROIJ, C. Learning abour Families. Salvation Army, New York (1976). VOLPE, R. The development and evaluation of a training program for school-based professionals. Child Abuse & Neglecr 5103-110 (1981). GRAPKO, M. F. The Sfory of Jimmy. Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto (1957).