Child Abuse Case Study

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30(1), 1-11. doi:10.1300/J019v30n01_01. Child abuse is a worldwide phenomenon that needs urgent attention. Kopp and Miltenberger (2008) in their study evaluated the validity and acceptability of using role-plays to assess sexual abuse prevention skills. Kopp and Miltenberger sent surveys to 97 Child Protective Service workers in North Dakota, in which 23 surveys were returned. Participants were informed that the scenarios were designed for use in assessing the sexual abuse prevention skills of 10 year old children. The participants were advised to rate the scenarios based on validity and social acceptability. The role-play scenarios were rated as realistic to very realistic on the validity dimension, and acceptable to very acceptable on the social acceptability dimension. Kopp and Miltenberger (2008) found that all scenarios were determined by the participants to be valid measures of sexual prevention skills and were deemed socially acceptable to be used with 10 year old children. The writer believes that Kopp and Miltenberger (2008) presented sufficient and relevant research literature that indicated a gap of knowledge regarding studies on sexual abuse prevention skills. This is practically important because the impact of child abuse on a child is profound and those negative effects can last a lifetime. The purpose of the study was to assess the validity and acceptability of a set of role-plays for assessing child abuse prevention skills, whereas the hypothesis seeks to determine whether role-plays were valid and acceptable for assessing child abuse prevention skills. Moreover, Kopp and Miltenberger provided limited operational definitions of the key terms used in the study. The writer believes that convenient sampling was us... ... middle of paper ... ...ieves that one cannot fathom all the situations or scenarios in which abuse can take place, and as such the scenarios used will be inadequate. In addition, deception was used as the respondents believed they were assessing the sexual prevention skills of 10 year old children; Kopp and Miltenberger (2008) failed to hold a debriefing session to inform the participants of the true nature of the study. Despite the shortcomings of the study, the writer concurs with Kopp and Miltenberger (2008) that the role plays used are valid and acceptable for assessing child abuse prevention skills; the study also demonstrated that role-plays have therapeutic value. Reference Kopp, B., & Miltenberger, R. (2008). Evaluating the Validity and Social Acceptability of Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Skill Measures. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 30(1), 1-11. doi:10.1300/J019v30n01_01.

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