# Evaluation of the school-based Healthy Relationships Project for primary prevention of child sexual abuse among children pre-K through 5th grade

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $399,999

## Abstract

Project Abstract
Evaluation of the school-based Healthy Relationships Project for primary prevention of child sexual
abuse among children pre-K through 5th grade
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a major issue worldwide, with rigorous evidence of its magnitude and impacts on
social, emotional and physical health. While interventions for the primary prevention of CSA exist, few have been
rigorously evaluated. A review of school-based education programs for CSA prevention (Walsh et al., 2015)
found a total of 24 trials representing 5,802 participants in both elementary and high schools across 7 countries.
Findings included evidence of improvements in protective behaviors and knowledge, with limited evidence of
increased odds of disclosure. None found changes in incidence/prevalence of CSA over time. The Healthy
Relationships Project (HRP) created, modified and run by the organization Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, has
been delivering CSA primary prevention curricula since 1990 with implementation across 30 U.S. States,
including statewide in Vermont. During those decades, substantiated cases per year in Vermont dropped
61% and the number of child perpetrators per year dropped 69%. Addressing Research Priority 1,
implementation of the HRP in Pre-K through 5th grade will be rigorously evaluated in a mixed-methods stepped
wedge randomized trial design with 16 public charter schools in three high-need wards in Washington, DC.
The School Safety Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 was enacted to obligate DC schools to prevent and
address student sexual abuse. Our partner Safe Shores, the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) for DC, has
implemented HRP in public charter schools with success; the opportunity remains to conduct this trial in schools
where it has not been delivered and increase its feasibility via established trust with the district and schools. Our
findings about its efficacy will potentially place the HRP into the echelon of evidence-based programs that many
schools seek to use, especially those mandated to deliver CSA prevention programming. Data from Safe
Shores, the CAC that receives reports of suspected child abuse from all Washington, DC public schools, will be
utilized as the primary outcome including the numbers and types of CSA investigations and other services
provided by the CAC involving the participating schools which include forensic services, family advocacy, case
management and more. More commonly utilized measures of improvements in protective behaviors, self-
efficacy, knowledge and disclosure will be collected from caregivers (n=3,500) and teachers (n= 266). Qualitative
research will be included to assess strengths and weaknesses of intervention rollout, fidelity monitoring, lessons
learned and sustainability. This innovative and novel mixed methods evaluation study will move the science of
child sexual abuse prevention research forward with a community-based participatory research partnership
between scientists in family violence prevention re...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10494015
- **Project number:** 5U01CE003393-02
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** BETH Ellen MOLNAR
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $399,999
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2023-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10494015

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10494015, Evaluation of the school-based Healthy Relationships Project for primary prevention of child sexual abuse among children pre-K through 5th grade (5U01CE003393-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10494015. Licensed CC0.

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