Teaching Children Consent Skills Through the Lens of Personal Boundaries and Bodily Autonomy

Author

Prerana Atreya, University of the PacificFollow

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Carolynn Kohn

First Committee Member

Marlesha Bell

Second Committee Member

Sarah Bloom

Third Committee Member

Holly White

Abstract

Sexual violence is a public health and safety problem affecting many children across the United States. One preventative tool the public health department uses to mitigate the high prevalence rates and harm of sexual violence is teaching consent skills to children. Previous research has demonstrated that behavior analytic principles effectively teach other important safety skills (e.g., abduction prevention, gun safety, and poison safety). Thus, it is possible that using behavioral technologies to teach consent skills will show similar effectiveness as teaching safety skills. The current study’s purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of using behavioral skills training (BST), video modeling, and in-situ training (IST) to teach consent skills to children. The results of the current study demonstrate that the comprehensive teaching package (i.e., BST, video modeling, and IST) is effective in teaching consent skills to children. Limitations and future research are discussed in further detail in the study.

Pages

59

Recommended Citation

Atreya, Prerana. (2024). Teaching Children Consent Skills Through the Lens of Personal Boundaries and Bodily Autonomy. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/4270