CHILDRENS PERCEPTIONS OF THE RISK OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Research to date has not examined children's perceptions of the risk o f sexual abuse, and how those perceptions change following participati on in a prevention program. This study assessed children's current per ceptions of the risk of sexual abuse, changes in children's perception s of risk after participation in a sexual abuse prevention program, an d age differences in children's beliefs about risk. The findings indic ate that children's already high perceptions of the risk of sexual abu se increased after participation in a prevention program, and that the ir predictions of abuse by strangers increased after the program. Howe ver, children's predictions of the likelihood of sexual abuse in speci fic videotaped scenarios was quite low. Younger children had lower per ceptions of risk than older children and their perceptions of the like lihood of abuse in the videotaped scenarios remained lower than the pe rceptions of older children even after the intervention program. In ad dition, children perceived differences in the risk-levels of various s ituations, but the factors they used to discriminate risk were not nec essarily related to real risks. The findings are discussed in relation to the larger issue of how children's perceptions of the risk of sexu al abuse are related to the goals of prevention programs.