Kids cite value of abuse-avoidance classes.

Elementary and secondary school students reap real-world benefits from instruction aimed at helping them to avoid and to report physical and sexual abuse, according to a study presented at a national symposium on child abuse prevention in Dallas last week.

"This is the first study to suggest that, when children with abuse-prevention training actually get victimized or threatened, they behave in ways envisioned by prevention educators," says David Finkelhor, a psychologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham who directed the survey.

In the past decade, reports of sexual abuse have increased greatly, as has scientific debate about the psychological aftereffects of such abuse (SN: 9/25/93, p.202).

Many elementary and secondary schools in the United States offer abuse-prevention instruction in a variety of formats. Most stress the frequency and nature of physical and sexual abuse, teach children to reject or escape from unwanted overtures and threats, encourage youngsters to tell an adult about such incidents, and assure students that they are not to blame for abusive encounters.

Finkelhor and his co-workers conducted telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 youngsters age 10 to 16, as well as their parents or caretakers.

Two-thirds of these children reported attending a school program that focused on abuse or victimization prevention. One in three students received "comprehensive" instruction, which included information about sexual abuse within the family, discussion of differences between "good" and "bad" touching, and sessions that occurred on more than one occasion.

A total of 837 youngsters experienced an attempted or completed physical assault; of that number, 115 cited cases of attempted or completed sexual abuse.

Several encouraging findings emerged from the interviews, Finkelhor contends. Children who received comprehensive instruction:

* displayed markedly more knowledge about sexula and physical abuse than other children;

* often used self-protection strategies recommended by instructors when victimized or threatened;

* felt better about how they handled instances of attempted or completed abuse; and

* showed much greater willingness to disclose such episodes to someone else.

Children who received instruction from their parents on how to avoid sexual abuse in addition to comprehensive abuse-prevention training at school were even more likely to benefit, Finkelhor asserts.

"Parental instruction has a heightened urgency to children, gets repeated over time, and is seen as more credible than school programs," he says.

On a less encouraging note, children who attended comprehensive school programs reported no greater ability to prevent physical or sexual abuse from being completed. In fact, particularly between the ages of 13 and 16, they suffered more physical injury during sexual abuse than other children.

This finding may reflect a greater tendency among older childern to fight back during episodes of sexual abuse that approximate adult rape, Finkelhor says. Abuse-prevention programs may need to address more thoroughly the issue of how to avoid physical injury during a sexual assault, he argues.

The survey lacks independent confirmation of the children's abuse reports and probably underestimates the incidence of incest in the sample, the New Hampshire psychologist notes. In addition, the findings do not apply to abuse-prevention programs aimed at children in preschool and early elementary grades.

"We can't develop policies for abuse-prevention programs based on this one study," Finkelhor says. "Other researchers need to conduct similar surveys."