ارزیابی یک برنامه آموزشی رفاه کودکان در بهره برداری جنسی تجارتی از کودکان ( نوع بهره کشی )

With the growing awareness of the nature and scope of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in the United States, a few state child welfare agencies have started to develop and implement training on CSEC for their social service staff. Since other state child welfare agencies may adopt a similar training model, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of these CSEC trainings. Therefore, in the present study, we used a randomized, control group design to evaluate the effectiveness of a CSEC webinar training program for child protective service (CPS) employees. We discuss our findings and make recommendations for child welfare agencies interested in providing CSEC training to their staff. Given the lack of sophisticated research evaluating the effectiveness of child welfare training programs, in general, and CSEC training programs, more specifically, this study fills a gap in the literature and offers a training model that could be replicated with child protection systems in other states.

There is a critical need to evaluate child welfare training programs. While child welfare agencies spend a considerable amount of time, money, and effort training their staff on how to address a number of social problems (i.e., child abuse and neglect, mental illness, poverty, substance abuse, etc.), there is very little research evaluating the effectiveness of these trainings (Collins, Amodeo, & Clay, 2007). As Collins (2008) notes, child welfare “training programs are repeatedly delivered without adequate empirical evidence of their effectiveness” (p. 241). Even when training evaluations are conducted, they usually lack the content and methodological rigor needed to satisfy the requirements for publication in peer-reviewed journals. In a study of training evaluation approaches used by child welfare agencies in 47 states, Collins (2008) found that six states did very little to evaluate their trainings, ten states relied on simple satisfaction forms, sixteen states utilized pretest–posttest questionnaires measuring participants’ self-perceptions of their knowledge and skills immediately before and after the training, five states conducted follow-up evaluations (i.e., three to six months after the training), and ten states performed more extensive evaluations. There were no evaluations of child welfare trainings that utilized a randomized, control group design. Since child welfare staff is trained to protect children from abuse and exploitation, we must ensure that the training that they receive is effective in providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to protect these vulnerable children. Since many child welfare agencies may lack the time and resources needed to conduct sophisticated training evaluations (Collins et al., 2007), child welfare agencies can benefit from working with a university partner to conduct these evaluations. In this article, we present the results of such an evaluation. Specifically, the first author partnered with a child welfare agency and other government and nonprofit groups to conduct an evaluation of a training designed to improve child protective service (CPS) employees’ beliefs and knowledge about the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC).

Although CSEC victims and other sex trafficking victims regularly come into contact with human service agencies, including child welfare agencies, many of the service providers may fail to identify these individuals as victims due to a lack of awareness (Macy & Graham, 2012). As a result, these commercially sexually abused children will not receive the specialized services needed. Therefore, it is important for CPS employees to receive effective training that will provide them with the knowledge necessary to identify CSEC victims and link them to the appropriate services. Furthermore, since having a history of involvement with CPS is a risk factor for entry into CSEC, CPS employees must be aware of the other risk factors for entry so that they can identify children who are at risk and refer them to specialized services. In the present study, we found that a 90-min CSEC webinar training is effective for increasing CPS employees’ knowledge about CSEC. Importantly, the training significantly improved their ability to identify the risk factors for entry into CSEC, increased their knowledge of local laws and services regarding CSEC, and increased their self-reported willingness to refer CSEC victims and children ‘at risk’ for CSEC to specialized services. Therefore, we recommend that child welfare agencies utilize a similar training as a preliminary step to improving CPS employees’ knowledge of CSEC and willingness to refer CSEC victims and children ‘at risk’ to specialized services. Specific referral policies and/or a full day, face-to-face training, however, may be necessary to increase actual referrals.