Helping children to the other side of silence: a study of the impact of the stay safe programme on Irish children's disclosures of sexual victimization.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a school based safety skills program--The Stay Safe Programme--in facilitating the disclosure of sexual abuse among sexually victimized children and adolescents in Dublin.

Method: A Cohort of 145 children who had participated in the Stay Safe Programme prior to their referral to a sexual abuse assessment unit were compared with a cohort of 443 children who had not participated in the prevention program on a range of disclosure related variables abstracted from case notes.

Results: More Stay Safe participants, particularly female adolescents, made disclosures of suspected sexual abuse than non-participants. A higher rate of initial disclosure to teachers was made by Stay Safe participants and more teachers in schools participating in the Stay Safe Programme initiated referrals for evaluation of suspected child sexual abuse. Following assessment a higher rate of confirmed abuse occurred among Stay Safe participants and for these confirmed cases more Stay Safe participants made purposeful disclosures and in significantly more cases referral was due to the child telling someone about the abuse. These differences in disclosure between program participants and non-participants were unrelated to demographic factors or characteristics of the abuse.

Conclusions: The Stay Safe Programme was an effective secondary prevention intervention deserving widespread implementation.